THE SCRATCHED EARTH, THE HEAT LOSS & THE COPSE GLOOM... (A NEW POEM ABOUT THE TEMPLE BALSALL BADGERS...)

 The Scratched Earth, The Heat Loss & The Copse Gloom…

Stumbling into the cool copse I was entombed in dankness.

There was a certain isolation.

I saw no-one. I heard no-one, 

As only nature and airliners tore at the silence.

Outside a sett, it was as if a badger had used a rake

To smooth out the rain-softened earth,

Keeping the garden tidy, I thought,

With ludicrous but rather imaginative frankness.

The food taken was spread, an invitation

For those faces, black and wan

To eke out a meal in my unwanted presence.

 I stood in awe, motionless for their sake,

Contemplating their precious worth

And the fascination they have unwittingly brought… 

Pete Ray

2nd September 2022…

Summer’s heat had gone, it was dull, dank and I was seemingly in no man’s land.

The badgers had scraped earth almost as if they had ploughed a shallow meadow, a kind of pathway from their sett.

And they ate what had taken for them to find.

And they remained calm…