The First Day Of Spring Poem by Francis Duggan

Though bare are the hedgerows and few songbirds sing
In far Northern Lands 'tis the first day of Spring
A blanket of fog envelopes the old hill
And the flood is bank high in the river and rill.

The male redbreast sings on the naked birch tree
His song not for joy but about territory
The feathers puffed out on his lovely red breast
He and his mate soon will be building their nest.

Though the cold chill of Winter is still in the air
In bare fields the daisies are to be seen everywhere
And the swallows will soon be back from far away
To fly o'er the valleys and fields all the day.

The male blackbirds squabble about territory
They stake out their boundaries invisible to me
In Nature only the strongest multiply
The genes of the weak are destined for to die.

On the deciduous branches buds starting to show
In around a month new leaves on them will grow
The first day of Spring by the Northern hills
And the flood is bank high in the rivers and rills.