(June 1996) A serendipitous happenstance

This month’s poem is from another sister magazine, the Bloxham Broadsheet. By happy coincidence, both Brenda Kirkham and our own Nature Notes contributor have commented, in their own (fanciful or factual) ways, on the effects of our recent ‘blackthorn winter’. No doubt Brenda’s brimstone butterfly has been sporting three pairs of wee green wellies this week.

SPRING WILL BE A LITTLE LATE THIS YEAR!

I saw a funny thing today
And I just had to laugh,
The spring’s first Brimstone butterfly
In anorak and scarf.

The daffodils awoke and took
One tiny drowsy peep,
“It can’t be spring it’s much too cold”
And they went back to sleep.

The garden birds are busy too
Believe me, I don’t jest,
I saw two little robins who
Had double glazed their nest.

The cuckoo has his flight bag packed,
But heard the met. man say
“Spring is three weeks late” so he
Arrives the end of May.

Eventually we will have spring
A summer too of sorts.
Then that Brimstone butterfly
Will fly past in his shorts.

Brenda Kirkham