THE CUB RUNNETH OVER... (My new poem about a badger cub at Temple Balsall, 3rd June 2025...)

 The Cub Runneth Over…

(A badger cub at Temple Balsall, 3rd June 2025…)

A calm evening, the copse was cool and shaded

And the food morsels spread about attracted

A trio of magpies, the snatchers, which flew

Untidily onto the parched and undulating 

Ground like thieves raiding a candy store.

The marginal, setting sunlight soon faded

But at least four badgers surfaced, distracted

No doubt by the sustenance scattered anew

Amongst weeds, nettles and grasses, creating

A foraging feast across the stony, woodland floor.

At last though, from behind, rushing like an excited

Puppy with gay abandon, a running cub emerged, drawn

To food dropped inside an untidy gaping hole, sighted 

A metre or so from where I stood, silent and forlorn.

It scrabbled, it scrambled, it squeezed into the space, 

It scratched, it skittered, it struggled on apace;

It fed, it fidgeted, it fiddled testily around,

Fearlessly, frantically and frenetically, it dug underground…  

Pete Ray

4th June 2025…

It was a strange experience when the cub raced towards where I was standing, oblivious to my presence.

It was eager to locate the food left just in the hole, which was only slightly bigger than itself.

It forced itself inside, ate heartily and began to dig to find more hidden morsels.

Another cub appeared too but it turned back before reaching the hole…

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE FULL VIDEO CLIP OF THE BADGER CUB...