Nature’s Gossips
Along the margins of some forest paths
Fresh, purling rivulets run noisily.
They are wild Nature’s gossips and will tell
The seasons of the year in tones that brook
No arguments from sceptic minds. They’ll say
Where foxes’ dens and badgers’ setts are hid;
Where shy deer browse beneath low boughs, hares box
Or rabbits burrow. If you wish, they will
Retail where thrush and blackbird nest; or where
The nightingale sings softly, deep in shade;
What place the spiral skylark briefly puts
Its fragile foot to ground; where night-owls haunt.
Such gossiping I never heard, before my home
Was in Coolmela and my senses free to roam.
