Dragonfly Exuviae - published Cambridge News 13 August 2013 (with two typos!)

Dragonfly Exuviae

Menacing  monster in submarine murk

An armoured dragon of the deep

Hidden in turgid depths to lurk

With ambush darts his prey to keep

*

Relentless jaws are barbed with claws

This sinister predator is rapacious

Beneath these innocent waters trawl

Driven by appetite voracious

*

By instinct drawn he knows not why

Compelled by strange primeval urge

The distant light above to seek

Now from these waters dark emerge

*

Hard fast to the blade of a reed he clings

Laboriously up with urgent crawl

Expands with new found life to breathe

This little death new life form brings

*

His landlocked shell his life deny

But  wings outstretch so they can flood

The veins with fresh pulsating blood

That  shimmer as they start to dry

*

He thought that he was doomed to die

This new and glorious dragonfly

But vacates his old exuviae

And finds that he was born to fly.



Swallows..... Published Cambridge News 21 August 2013



Swallows

When the lines are full of swallows

I feel a pang of sadness

Knowing then that autumn follows

Though spring will bring relief and gladness

*

This swirling mass of tiny forms

Along the wires they congregate

They circle and settle and gossip together

In preparation to migrate

*

Thousands of miles they have to travel

These tiny feathered creatures

Ancient routes they must unravel

Instinctively following terrestrial features

*

They sally forth so gallantly

These frail and fragile flying things

With nought to guide them on their way

But SATNAV and their wings...

*

Dangers and perils they daily encounter

Exhaustion, privation and thirst

But before they can relax and rest

They must cross the deserts of Africa first

*

Yet - these tiny birds that perch with ease

On phone wires, do not perch on trees

So this just makes me wonder too

Before those wires - what DID they do?

Stowaways

Stowaways

If the boot is left open

We can quietly slip  in

And sit there so patient

It isn’t a sin

Don’t leave us behind

Our eyes seem to say

We really don’t mind

In the car if we stay

We’re happy to wait

We’ll be good as gold

We’ll stay here if you’re late

And do what we’re told

We don’t care what you do

We don’t mind where we’re going

If we come along too

Whatever you’re doing

If you look at our faces

No butter would melt

But we like going places

We just need a seat belt



Butterfly Carousel - Published Cambridge News 7 August 2013

Butterfly Carousel

A butterfly alights on high

Sunlit tracery of delicaate veins

Antennae clear on azure sky

A fleeting pause in fluttering games

*

They circle me in ceaseless rings

An effortless endless carousel

Sunlight through translucent wings

Spinning their entrancing spell

*

Retreat advance in seamless dance

They flicker and flit in airborne trance

Then spellbound by this dizzying round

Their way pursue and bid adieu

 



Baby Royal - Published Cambridge News 6 August 2013

Baby Royal

A baby is a special thing

A precious creature quite unique

If girl or boy a source of joy

With pride and love their tears alloy

Miracle miniature of man's physique

But this one could become a king......



Peanut Thief

Peanut Thief

We love to feed our birds

It gives us so much pleasure

To watch our little feather friends

Partaking at their leisure

But I’m less than keen on rooks –

They take an awful lot of food

To feed their large voracious brood

They’re a bunch of big black crooks

But what I see up in my tree

Is furry and not feathered

He is dangling nimbly upside down

Where the peanut ball is tethered

He’s cheeky and so very wary

Neat, alert and most astute

He is feathered not – distinctly hairy

I can’t help but find him rather cute.

His beady eye glints in the gloom

The sheltering canopy beneath

His tail is curled up in a plume

My squirrel is a peanut thief!



Wild Flower Walk



Wildflower Walk

Wading through wildflowers nearly waist high

In purple and pink and golden bloom

In billowing waves that brush my thigh

And fill the air with sweet perfume

*

The air’s alive with butterflies

That flicker and dart with sunlit wings

Flit through this flowering paradise

Then  flutter on to other things

*

Browns and blues and tortoiseshells

And marbled white and skippers bright

They open their wings and bask to sun

Drink nectar from the flowing bells

*

There’s birdsfoot trefoil’s saffron bloom

Scabious lilac and violet and blue

And mignonette and purple vetch

With lucerne in  a deeper hue

*

There’s pimpernel and wild rose

There are daisies alight but the poppies are over

And knapweed’s rich magenta glows

All carpeted beneath with  clover

*

Spreading heads of milfoil yarrow

Fluttering with things on wings

And vibrant pink of field restharrow

And butterfly to this bloom clings

*

Branching teasel’s stately stem

Conceals within a hidden gem

Of water cool in hidden pool

Where bees assuage their thirst again

*

And all across these flowering seas

The air is filled with murmuring hum

Undertone drowsy with pollen and sun

Vibrating air with drone of  bees