ROSLIN RAMBLE

A loner, a saunter, a glen
A rumpus, a twitter, a wren

A branch, a leap, a flight
A squirrel, a squirrel, a fight

A rock, a face, a shape
A tiger, an ogre, an ape
 

A stone, a stream, a slip
A shoe, a sock, a drip

A splash, a turn, a fish
A circle, an absence, a wish

A shadow, a shape, a crash
A tail, a deer, a dash

A fox, a scent, a prowl
A sunset, a silence, an owl

A tree, a trunk, an arm
A care, a friend, a calm

A path, a walk, a way
A wood, a world, a day

The Flamingo

Flamingos dress in fetching pink
but can be rather glum,

Their legs being made of plastic tubes
and bits of chewing gum.

from An Absird Book of Burds
illustrated by John Fardell whose children's novel -

The Seven Professors of the Far North

was published by Faber in 2004

THE ORIGINAL (SELKIRK)
AND THE ALTERNATIVE GRACE

(with apologies to the Bard)

Some hae meat and canna eat
And some wad eat that want it:
But we hae meat and we can eat,
And sae the Lord be thankit.

But some hate meat and girn and weep,
Resisting all coercion,
So bless the tatties, bless the neeps
And the vegetarian version.

Then filled wi' fruits o' field and vine
And feelin fairlie frisky,
The One who water turned to wine,
We'd ask to bless the whisky.

all poems by Richard Medrington