By Bernie Bell

Mike got back from his daily constitutional and wrote this…..I think it catches the day, the time of year and the place

March

A morning of hares, chasing
Courting and copulating rooks and rock doves
Daffs heeling over in the westerlies
Seen from inside

Then out, for constitutional and counting of birds
Cheeks reddened by gravel-fling of hailstones
Sheltering in the boatshed
And afterwards a rainbow over the sunlit bay of dappled shallows

Walking on, in sharp-angled sun
Keeping company with my shadowed self
Rooks, tattered rags blowing past, larks keeping low
And geese (greylag 15, pinkfeet 5)

Then home, to a change of trousers
Purple heads of broccoli cut
And pastry unrolled for pasties
Soul stirred.

McB 22/3/26