Drizzle persists beyond a day of rain.
Though sheep move warily away, one stays;
two horses shod in sodden blankets raise
their heads to look and lower them again.
Water rises cloudily in the brook.
Woodpecker bolts; a flash of egret wing;
the heron resumes its grey wandering –
‘they flee from me that oft-times me forsook’.
But now a mobile rings enquiringly.
Woodburner calls – a gash of yellow flame;
the animals around the hearth are tame
and one there will complete the company.
NP, January 2018