To raise and flatten mountains
To fill and dry up seas
To choose when each leaf lifts
On a softly stirring breeze
To mark the fleeting eons
Yet dictate a cell’s decay
To hold the world in orbit
Spinning to pass the day
Power wrought by nature
No conscience or regrets
Entropy increases
Obeying laws it sets
Is this universal
Across worlds we cannot see?
Begs another question
How can all this be?
Wondrous-coloured paradise bird
Nightingale, so sweet when heard
Hummingbird hovers in still air
Cuckoos tell us Summer is here
Consider a less regarded bird
One that little praise has stirred
Seen in quite unwholesome role
All black feathers as dark as coal
It scavenges food beside the road
Dodging traffic with its dead load
Wary of people it looks in your eye
Any slight movement, it takes to the sky
Wet windy days, when others stay home
This still braves the heavens to roam
Its powerful wings effortlessly fly
Large beak cawing a throaty cry
Often found in a murderous host
Its intellect is better than most
The creature is one you’re certain to know
It is of course the crow
If my tomato plants could speak
They would surely sing with praise
About the tidy greenhouse
As they enjoy summer days
Grow bags lined up precisely
Canes readied for support
Windows open for fresh air
A perfect life in short
Why, then, do they bear so little
Of the round and deep red fruit
It offends me and seems selfish
Of that there’s no dispute
Each evening I check in on them
Down the winding garden path
But their offerings are so paltry
I think they’re having a laugh
My neighbour says they’re dying
But how can he be sure
He says they must need feeding
But, like watering, at that I’m poor
Kids are alright in small doses
But soon get under your noses
They break your best china
And think nothing is finer
Than cutting the heads off your roses
Out of nowhere a BANG takes place
Energy and matter now exist in space
Positive, negative, normal and dark
Atoms and strange particles, including the quark
Time is born; and its arithmetic
The cosmic clock makes its very first tick
Entropy increases, with empirical truth
Universe expanding, throughout its youth
Attractive forces come into play
Gravity, one such, holding sway
In gaseous clusters, suns start to glow
Forming heavier atoms in their fiery throe
Worlds coalesce from cosmic dusts
Atmospheres, weather, primordial crusts
Eons passing in galaxies rife
Goldilocks zones, permitting life
Normal matter, of which we’re made
Dark stuff, more common, cannot be weighed
Its job, invisible, to hold things in place
As we hurtle through the cosmos at a frantic pace
Body; once lithe, now weary and weakening
Memories; once clear, now fossilised and fading
Faculties; once keen, now base and blunt
Senses; once sharp, now unreliable and uncertain
Voice; once resounding, now timorous and trembling
Gait; once certain, now wavering and wobbly
Hands; once steady, now capricious and clumsy
Friends; once constant, now flagging and fickle
House; once pristine, now dusty and damp
Garden; once welcoming, now disregarded and decayed
Future; once limitless, now finite and fixed
Sit patiently looking at a closed door
….willing it to open
Curl endearingly in front of an open fire
….daring it to spark
Look witheringly from its bowl to you
…..showing distain for your meagre offering
Scurry frantically from its litter tray
….denying responsibility for the smell
Lie contentedly in your lap ‘til your legs ache
….expecting you to stroke its head
Sleep soundly for most of the day
….allowing you to tidy its house
