I can hear the birdsong
This very morning I heard the dawn chorus
I do not know the names of many birds
Yesterday in the park, by the lake
Was it a Kingfisher?
Half hidden, chirping on the branch
Was it a Budgerigar in Richmond Park
I walk happily beside the trees
Talk of them being in and out of leaf
Although to tell the Silver Birch
From the Aspen don’t ask me
Nor to name all the species in the hedgerow
In the shoe shop; leather, bonded to the
diamond effect skin of a stingray
In the chemist's museum, a remnant from the
Great Barrier Reef, both explained after we
asked the simple question; what is it
We had a choice of twenty-seven beers
After no more than a few samples
We found one to our liking
Then passed on its name, to those friendly folk
From Ireland and Australia
