John Rickell - Curlew Calls

The curlew no more
stalks the estuary
winter is gone.
I hear but one cuckoo
and summer is here,
when I hear him no more
summer will fade again
autumn slipping silent by,
the blackbird heralding
the shortening day as
crows assembling in pines
sing a raucous roundelay
to rutting stags and
waiting doe as the fox
seeks rabbits in
the honeysuckle hedge
bright with berries and
black with bramble beneath
the crab and thorny sloe.
Yellow tinges in the leaves
as ash and aspen moult,
while the oak stands green
until November gales discard
the orange leaves and red,
acorns fall and squirrels
stock their larders
As the curlew calls

John Rickell

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/curlew-calls/