Other formats

    TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 7, Issue 9 (April 1, 1933)

The Return of the Godwits

page 38

The Return of the Godwits

There's something that a man may learn
!From listening to the wheeling tern
!And he is passing wise who walks
!In counsel with the mollymawks;
!But I'm a fool who never listens
!When sunlight on the wet scarp glistens,
!And I'm a dolt who never learns
!The news of peewits and of terns.
!Yet have I known a strange delight
!When I have heard the quidnuncs say,
!“The godwits have come back to-day,”
!And there are things I could indite
!Of godwits, foreign to the talk
!Of kestrel and of mollymawk.
!I like to think those little birds
!Have caught the tang of Russian words.
!I like to think those little kleps
!Have stolen grain from Russian steppes
!If one may think of godwits wheeling
!Over the Russian inland, feeling
!Elated at the sight of Slavs
!Cutting the throats of pigs and calves
!I wonder if, from his roof tree
!A Moujik looked with shaded eyes
!Into the nihilistic skies
!Blue as the mantle used to be
!Of the dishonoured Virgin. Nay,
!I'll heark no more to what they say.

* * *