Queen of the Boiler

Queen of the Boiler

She's the queen of the boiler

She can sit there and preen

Stretch out her paws and flex her claws

Meticulously lick her fur clean

But now there are two new invaders

A wet muddy brace

Of boots put to dry where she likes to lie

In her own special place

With a meow  of protestation  

She has curled herself smaller

And with some indignation and sad resignation

Has relinquished some space

  

Wild Harvest - Published Cambridge News 15 November 2013

                                                            

                                                      

                                  Wild Harvest                                

Autumn when Nature her riches shares

A profusion of wild fruits so lavish

That there for all the  wayside bears

Free fruits that trees and hedgerows garnish

Magnificent chestnut’s generous harvest

Where children delight in shiny conkers

With zest released from spiny vest

Gleaming rich with chestnut varnish

Rosettes and trails of scarlet glows

From hips and haws and rowan berries

And bryony’s glistening beaded garlands

Like jewels flung with careless abandon

There’s  indigo bloom of bitter sloes

And dusky  damsons hanging like cherries

Black glossy elder fruit, crab apples gold

For gin and wine or jams and jellies

Wild harvest too for squirrels and birds

All kinds of creatures both feathered and furred

Gathered and stored with one accord

Collected and hidden with scrupulous care

Nuts and seeds for winter hoard

Secreted away in burrow and lair

From oak boughs bowed with weight of the acorns

Away from prying eyes are buried

Armoured by thorns but tempting and luscious

Blackberries abound in succulent clusters

With their crooks and their hooks people picking and eating

(One has a stepladder – but surely that’s cheating)

There’s a huge hornet like motorbike parked by the edge

While its tattooed black leathered owner dallies

His helmet abandoned beside the hedge

Facial studs glinting – he is picking the blackberries

 

Litterbugs - Published Cambridge News 3 October 2013

Litterbugs

I wonder who these people are

Who so lightheartedly  fling

From the window of the car

The rubbish that they bring

There are bottles and drink cans

Which litter the verge

And these hideous things

From the wildflowers emerge

Cigarette boxes and all kinds of trash

They just chuck out the lot

They sling it and dash

But bio-degrade – it does NOT

Thus all this detritus they sling

And unnatural things our roadsides sully

And a depressing air of squalor brings

To every edge and every gully

When you’re driving your car

Please don’t  throw as you roam

Just take all  your litter

And bin it back home

(Collected from 20m of verge)

Storm - published Cambridge News 26 7 13

Storm

Zig-zagging flash and deafening crash rending the sky asunder

With the shattering roar of celestial lion

The heavens at war with the great God Thor

As he hammers on anvils of iron

The cymbals of heaven are crashing together

As jagged streaks of lightning tear

The blackening sky is ripped apart

By flickering shock of  blinding glare

The beating rain on window pane

Water cascading in torrential downpour

Like elemental spirit flailing the glass

Drumming with wild relentless roar

The drama and thrill of the fury out spill

Above the crescendo of thunder is born

Where the towering thunderheads are clashing

Caught in the eye of the storm

The roiling heavens above in torment

With jagged streaks that havoc wreak

While insignificant mortals below

Are dwarfed by the rage of the firmament

Prescriptions

Prescriptions

I have to hand in my prescription

Because I’m now taking pills

For most of my ills

Of every shape size and description

There are blue ones and green ones

                                  And red ones and yellow                               

                                 And pink ones and white ones                               

And large ones to swallow

Some pills are long

And some pills are round

So you don’t get them wrong

Their colours abound

The results are beyond my prediction……….

September Skies - Published Cambridge News 15 and 25 October 2013

September Skies

Great burgeoning clouds with indigo base

Armada of galleons sailing on high
Endless succession in stately procession
Proudly parading across the sky

Tumultuous shapes in towering billows

Gilt edged lace expanding frills
Exploding from colossal  pillows
Mushrooming vapour and ephemeral hills  

Dancing a continuous slow quadrille

Serenely moving with changing shapes
Bellying  full of glittering raindrops
Are cumulous mountains and valleys and lakes

With ominous approaching  threat

Dark treacherous shadow from horizons advance

           Then spreading dazzling fanned out rays           

          Miraculous sunlight will through this lance            

And from this black and menacing cloud

A vivid arc of rainbow glows
With  brilliant sunlight refracting the colour
By magic as if from no where arose

Dragonflies before your eyes

Dragonflies Before Your Eyes

My garden has two dragonflies

Whizzing to and fro

Sunlight glinting on their wings

With dazzling colour glows

With camera held I’m watching them

To see where they will go.

In silhouette against the sky

First one tries my washing line

On tiptoe I can have a  try

And got a picture just in time.

Then  breath abated I sat and waited

For where the next will settle

A challenging photo this could be

To put me on my mettle

And now at last he’s come to rest

And taken up the perfect pose

Where I can get that picture best

 *

He’s perching neatly on my toes