Harvest Spoilers Poem by JDC LeDrew

Often I have seen them in the fall
When filberts lay in husked green rugs,
In patches 'round the orchard floor;
The jays, screaming and scolding,
While winging here and there among the harvest.

Not content are they with an even score,
But that they must take the flesh of many,
And counting them all, boasting them all,
As their plunder.

Often you must have seen them in the fall,
When the leaves lay golden carpets
There to be trodden under,
By young men winging here and there
Between the ivy halls.

When whistling and shouting
They prance among the harvest,
Boasting loudly amongst themselves,
And counting each one taken
As their plunder.

And so it came to me there was sameness,
In both the young men and the jays,
That in the end between them,
They would not leave one nut unspoiled.