Milestone & Heron
by Gill McEvoy
[ poetry - december 08 ]
Milestone
Oh clumsy badger! Always too slow
crossing roads. Untaught how to look.
Poor badger. We have built a road
that runs right through your path.
Our civil engineers know nothing of your ways.
We would ask you to forgive us
but you will not be the last. Each spring
will darken with your blood,
will find your stout grey hump
curved like a milestone set in grass.
Heron
Iconic bird, along with kingfisher, swallow,
owl, the lark and lapwing,
every poet writes of you. They say you're
hunched by the water,
deep in contemplation,
you raise the extending ladder of your neck,
walk on the tall stilts of your legs.
Etc, etc.
Enough of all that stuff! You're nothing but
a sword, a spear, lethal harpoon.
As God, or whoever it was, decided
in his wisdom, or
whatever it was,
to make you.
