Pickings

When the snout of lush abundance is full and flowing, when all prey and creature-kind spill upon the verdant swards, then it is that I worry night and day, for the stoat, fox and hawk are at work, they scythe in the whelm and nimiety, they hack and harrow. The kits and chuckling’s are many, the light too bright; for then the foragers forgoing fright, are palpable and open. The long-eared nibblers, hairs on scattered rodents laid bare, they scutter, skitter and twitch much in the open greatly prone to be pounced upon; their paltry pelts all unhidden, and being many, and not running, they are huddled; yet not strong. If this slew not ease, if the grabbers not falter, if the singled-out dither, the glut not wither, then the green snake will climb to where nestlings hutch - they all so easily plucked and quickly snatched. I worry for the wee brown birds; mottled shells still unhatched. I fear a winnowing, withal a harsh hazard of gorge and sate. I fret for the freshly delivered, the teeming, the newly produced, all the bounding bounty for those too easily found and so, arrived too late.