Meadow Melody Poem by C Richard Miles

Chewing the cud unperturbed by the world in the heat’s haze,
Up in the meadow tread red-polled, old, dun cows and brown cows,
Jerseys and Guernseys combining with Holsteins, all fine beasts.

All summer long in the strong, blinding sunshine, the kine graze,
Nibbling the timothy, fescue and rye grass, that high grass
Hiding the hollows, where tussocks of sedge deck the marsh edge.

Bulls on the hillocks are wickedly bitten by big ticks.
Under the sun comes the hum of the irritant insects
Startling the cattle who battle their biting with dim sense.

High on the hummocks, the bullocks, once playful, are hay-full,
Dreaming as sunbeams are streaming to bleach all the green grass
Lazy, as daises emblazon the hay with their white smiles.

Sunset is heading to redden and deaden the fierce heat,
Stealing the gold of the fold back to lacklustre blackness
So that the herd and the world can return to their sweet sleep.