Enough of golden daffodils, romance and paths not taken
Let's lend poetic airing to a subject quite forsaken.
An opportunity's emerged to give a little plug
To that much lambasted creature called the common garden slug.
Though snails have stirred the poets' muse on many an occasion,
The slug has been subjected to a poesy evasion.
No poet worth his salt would waste much time on this intruder;
A slimy, homeless gastropod and shameless gunge exuder,
Repellent garden wrecker with a squirming gloopy tail
Which lathers lubrication in a sticky winding trail.
But just to be contrary have you ever stopped to think
How an absence of these creatures would create a mighty stink?
They go about their business eating signs of plant decay
And help the ecosystem in a beneficial way.
The hedgehogs, frogs and badgers, salamanders birds and shrews
Would view their disappearance as quite catastrophic news.
So next time you are tempted to dismiss them as a pest
Take pity on the homeless and give naked slugs a rest!
20.05.20
And Now For Something Completely Different Poetry Contest
Sponsored by John Lawless
Wet slug
Wants hug
Slime trail
Cocktail
Locate
Slug mate
Damp log
Quick snog
Eggs laid
Slugs made
Your pace of life is just sublime
When blessed with seasons, wet and warm
With foliage and fungi, you mark your time
A gastropod; a handsome form
As your journey is marked with a trail of slime
I wish you well, as you perform
O slink away from the hearty hedgehog
Spread word of your foes with silent talks
Avoid beer traps, salt piles, the brazen frog
And gardeners with their rakes and forks
I know every journey's a slow footslog
So, use well those tentacles and fine eye stalks
Jack Jack found a limpet in his smörgåsbord
Which clung to his nose a real odd-bod
He rolled over the payment
And scratched up his fine raiment
Cursing that damn spicy gastropod.
Once I found a snail
Slowly moving with its shell
Along the shores of Bacsil
White sand dunes hills.
Then suddenly the snail
Went out of its shell hollow
To look for a hole
But not let it in to huddle.
Another big-eyed
Protruding four-legged gastropod
With cinnamon roll-shell
Centipede claws ready to snap it.
But one moonlight
And a windy night
The snail found again a house
Behind the bamboos and shady "aludig" trees
The snail no more in snail pace
Come alive!
Terms:
Bacsil - a small barrio in Paoay, Ilocos Norte, Philippines.
Aludig tree- a wild shady tree in the forested area in the Philippines. Old folks believe that snakes love this tree for their sap which is converted into a venom. (I just heard this explanation from the old folks who live in that area).
Ancient beyond knowing,
spirals of information
float in on a frothy tide.
With shades of the rainbow
the whelk shell preens
enclosing its gastropod guest.
Where did they meet
to become this symbiotic star
of eons before mind?