WHE THE ACORNS FELL & THE RAIN BLEW IN ONTO THE SILENT COPSE... (My new poem about the badgers of Temple Balsall...)

 When The Acorns Fell & The Rain Blew In Onto The Silent Copse…

It really was quite calm.

There was silence, except for the distant honking

Of evening geese, squabbling and preparing for flight.

The copse resembled an area rendered uncouth,

Untidy and indeed, uninhabited.

Until, infiltrating the early evening’s balm,

A single badger, its masked face striking,

Pushed out from its sett to feed in the fading light,

Eager, hungry but clearly nervous, in truth,

For its foraging was sceptical and its movements limited…

Quite suddenly though, a breeze shifted more and more

Loosely held acorns from a canopy of oaks,

Which fell like random hailstones upon the woodland floor,

Worrying the brock which instantly, yet smoothly disappeared

Into the safety of its labyrinth, by fear coaxed…

And rain began to fall, scattering leaves, smeared 

By autumn’s hues, crisp and golden brown,

Which almost hesitatingly parachuted down…

Pete Ray

15th October 2022

Hadn’t been able to visit the badgers of Temple Balsall for some weeks but within ten minutes of a quiet early evening, one badger emerged to feed, until quite suddenly the slate grey clouds which had seemingly followed my journey to the copse erupted into a breezy and heavy shower of rain.

The badger seemed alerted by the imminent change to the weather, or perhaps it detected the odour of garlic either on my fingers, or upon the food which I had scattered for the mammals…

I had been preparing a curry before leaving the house…