Credit where credit is due by Susan Jacobs

Arts Richmond

Online - 28 June 2020

Credit where credit is due

The dunnock is brown, there’s no gold on his crown,

But his silvery song comes tumbling down.

The great tit is trim in his yellow-black kit

Calling “teacher”, oh “teacher”, on ad infinite

The starlings all squabble and jostle and fight,

Putting green parakeets to a panicky flight.

The two collared doves quietly bill as they coo,

Their deportment and manners so prim as they woo.

The magpies are louder, and when they all bathe

Show no-one has taught them just how to behave.

My robin is perky, his sub-voice is soft

But how magic he sounds in full throat aloft.

The newt in the pond has a menacing mien

In his startling gold waistcoat, his appetite’s keen

For the poor little tadpoles emerging from spawn –

Any chance their surviving to “frogdom” forlorn.

The ivy and yew buzz with bumbles and bees,

So too does the blossom on old apple trees.

Of butterfly species the count is now eight,

And they zig zag and flutter in a drunken-like state.

The bats then emerge as the sun disappears,

Their calls much too high for my elderly ears.

Perhaps damn Corona gives space for one thing:

To savour the joy and perfection of spring.

Susan Jacobs

18 April 2020