2020 Covid-19 Memories
Jane Aldous, West Mains Allotments
Allotment findings
A frog perfectly matched to the faded yellow
of raspberry leaves
a magpie’s mangled bones left by a fox
copper-black gooseberry globes
rangy snail-chewed mangetout
that kept growing regardless
a profusion of blackberries transformed
into crumbles and jam
courgettes that were eaten and died
courgettes that thrived crammed in
with purple sprouting broccoli
all the bumblebees and honeybees
hoverflies and butterflies
proof that nature just gets on with it
A frog perfectly matched to the faded yellow
of raspberry leaves
a magpie’s mangled bones left by a fox
copper-black gooseberry globes
rangy snail-chewed mangetout
that kept growing regardless
a profusion of blackberries transformed
into crumbles and jam
courgettes that were eaten and died
courgettes that thrived crammed in
with purple sprouting broccoli
all the bumblebees and honeybees
hoverflies and butterflies
proof that nature just gets on with it