Animals

Animals:

Why are they here?

To take over when we’re gone,

Turn back the clock?

They haven’t forgiven us

For acting smart,

Reforming the wild;

They’re lying in wait,

Lurking in jungles and zoos,

Ready to strike.

Pets aren’t as cute as we think;

They’ll have first pick

When civilization ends;

Get to the larder quick

Before the wolves arrive.

Noah should have filled the Ark

With flowers instead.

They don’t bite;

You can stick them in a vase,

Watch them fade,

Write poems in recompence.

So, watch out!

It’s not just rats.

That horse wants more than oats;

That worm knows more than we guess;

That swan has ‘previous’.

If you see bears in Oxford Street,

They’ll be shopping for human coats.

Endurance

They wheeled you down lanes
You knew as a girl;

Your voice rose with the sound

Of circling gulls

To cliffs climbed long ago.

You read the borders on the way

Like pages from an almanac:

Wild thyme, lady’s slipper, moon daisies,

Herb robert, old man’s beard,

Hedgerows stained red with valerian,

Fuschia stealing down limestone walls;

You smiled at it all,

Shaking a white convolvulos

In the August shade.

Back home, you labour up familiar steps,

A path you know;

But still, when days lie overgrown

Or clasped in memory,

This lasts:

A song repeated.