Monday 4 April 2022

ON WATCH...

 On Watch…





There was such a silence

That even shotguns, birds and the flightpath

Became unnoticeable.

There was such an ambience,

For even vehicles, ramblers and cyclists 

Had become invisible.

Dressed in black my presence,

Resembling a scorched sapling

Had even become acceptable…


Soon, a head appeared from a gouged hole,

Checking all around, playing the scout’s role.

It backed out stealthily from the gaping sett,

The manoeuvre an awareness of imminent threat.

Satisfied that dusk’s light seemed safe to bear

It edged across a hummock of roots to where

Other vibrant adult badgers duly emerged

Until seven or eight of them scrabbled and surged

Over the scrub and foraged the food I had scattered,

Munching and crunching like nothing else mattered…


I stood endeared.

I dared not make a sound.

A fake sapling enamoured

By those badgers around…  



Pete Ray

4th April 2022

   


3rd April, Temple Balsall, where I saw eight badgers at one point, as they eagerly sought the food left for them, despite an initial reticence… 




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