Day Fourteen
HIBERNATION
slow
slow
slow
slow
measure each breath
by the seasons
curl up
into self-tight kernel
don’t let go
-Dr. Jennifer A. McGowan
..hedgehog..
i have been out looking
for you
amongst the knapweed
amongst the flowers
cut those brambles that may stick
to your prickles
we left it longer
the tidying this year
so as not to be a slave to it
and rewards are endless
good it has become a fashion with the climate
changing
it always did make sense to me
others thought not in the past
we have a a past, it keeps reminding me
rewilding.
-sonja benskin mensher
Hognap
I’m a gobbler of slugs,
beetles, caterpillars, snails,
a digger, a climber, a swimmer.
dusk heralds my ‘to do’ time,
spring, summer, autumn.
By Halloween I’m a fat forager
for leaves in suburban gardens,
wilted countryside bracken,
reeds by a bittern’s hiding ground.
I’m a busy builder in a hidden pocket,
maybe a hedgerow, tree root,
under logs, under sheds.
Locate my hibernaculum, if you can,
insulated, watertight, fit for winter torpor,
a refuge for my heartbeat of twenty per minute.
Do not disturb.
-Maggie Mackay
Published in ‘For the Silent’, Indigo Dreams Publishing
-Googie McCabe.
Who says “Here are some images documenting the interspecies tension between the hedgehogs and the Badgers in my garden. “
The Hedgehog
My brother came back with another’s smell,
so we ate him. Mam would eat all us too,
if we smelt different. Nose, ears keen tell
what cream and brown shapes on our dark pursue.
That was then. Last dark I circled, circled
her. She puffed, snorted loud to keep me off.
Others came. I squeaked at them. Lowered
my head, raised my spines, clucked, one coughed,
I butted his sides. He rolled. They all left.
Afterwards I leave. Sniff long bellies, hard backs
I crack their shells, squelch the soft tasty rest.
Need to eat more. Not fat enough won’t last
Cold time. Found this damp dark in here. It’s why
I chirp and whiffle, splat out quills and sigh.
Bios and links
-Googie McCabe
-Paul Brookes
Born in Poland in the last century, currently living in the UK, where will probably expire at some point. Self-taught ‘artist’, office worker during day; a doodler and dreamer at night. Mother of two girls – a future philosopher and a future assassin.
The Wombwell Rainbow 