LEADING THE TEAM OUT...

 Leading The Team Out…

A cluster of tall, complicated trees

Shifted in a cool, pre-dusk breeze,

Dulling the copse floor into a sense

Of alienation and abject silence;

Occasional streaks of sunlight were glittering

Like discarded stolen gold bars, littering

A forgotten wasteland’s dank earth, stark.

And I hovered, rigid against striated bark…

…waiting,

anticipating,

patient,

silent…

A small, masked face then appeared

From a sett, and, inquisitive, it peered;

Then, like team members, other badgers emerged,

Spilled into the arena and upon scattered peanuts surged…

…rifling,

snuffling,

pilfering,

foraging…

Pete Ray

15th July 2021

Feeding badgers, Temple Balsall…

When they began to appear they reminded me of Italian footballers appearing from underground changing facilities, following their Captain up steps and into the arena.

The badgers emerged upwards from their sett and engaged in feeding within their own ‘arena’…