The Tenants Of Barton's End Farmhouse Poem by Sheena Blackhall

Warm straw invites the squirrel and the rat
The opportunist lodgers choose the thatch
Sparrow and magpie plunder it for nests
Wood beetle gives the rafters quick dispatch

Noctule bats and pipistrelle roost there
Up in the musty loft, lured by the dark
Under the eaves the puffball squirrel chirps
House martin nests there in her muddy ark

Small field and dormice scuttle out and in
The cold-tail rat will forage for a meal
The cellar houses the squat parping toad
Who fast unfolds to gulp a spider meal

Downstairs with crane fly, moth and pharoah’s ant
Live earthworm, woodlouse, snail and centipede
Earwig greenfly the furry moth and cat
Share tenancy with slug and millipede

Sub-letters are bookworm and silverfish
Cockroach and firebrat love this rural Hilton
Along with mealworm, flour worm, steam fly, weevil
Eelworm in vinegar cheese mite in stilton

Bluebottle, ladybird, dart-poisoned wasp
All join their human landlords in the house
And last comes stepping in the tiny flea
And bed bug, each accom’nied by his spouse