A Thai Garden Wild Year, February

Another instalment of my mini-poem garden journal. One per day about something from our garden, which sits amongst the rice-fields and sugar-palm trees of Petchaburi Province in Thailand.

1st Feb:
Diving pigeons,
Give her away,
Passing peregrine,
Missile grey.

2nd Feb:
In termite home,
Mud mounded,
Woodpecker beak,
Holes pounded.

3rd Feb:
Saw-edged spikes,
Blood-red bloom,
Snagging arms,
Pineapple soon!

4th Feb:
New Year noise,
Chinese stuff,
Far off temple.
Not far enough.

5th Feb:
Termites waiting,
Through rain disruption,
So hosepipe water,
Triggers eruption.

6th Feb:
Surface nibbling,
Of gourami school,
Looks like rain,
To a hopeful fool.

7th Feb:
The tree has eyes,
Of cautious crows,
But by hiding so,
The nest shows.

8th Feb:
One ripe jackfruit,
Skin of a beast,
Two hours to peel,
Fantastic feast.

9th Feb:
Southern wind,
For kite-flying,
Sticky nights,
And grass dying.

10th Feb:
Pied harrier mobbed,
But lapwing unheeded,
To make it leave,
Six lapwings needed.

11th Feb:
Hare poo picking,
For fertiliser,
And of hare habits,
Be slightly wiser.

12th Feb:
Mango glut,
A salve for heat,
Birds and all,
Can share our treat.

13th Feb:
Garden crackle,
Crunching feet,
Carpet of sound,
From arid heat.

14th Feb:
Honey, I love you,
And thank the bees,
For sweet gifts,
And fertilised trees.

15th Feb:
Dragging hose,
Tree to tree,
But who drinks more,
The trees or me?

16th Feb:
Calling koel,
Just one need,
To tell the world,
It's time to breed!

17th Feb:
Loveable lizard,
One foot long,
Grows to monitor,
Six foot strong.

18th Feb:
Lapwing,
Minus legs,
Must be sitting,
On her eggs.

19th Feb:
For many days,
Ground shaking,
Neighbour's digger,
Earthquaking.

20th Feb:
Stones and all,
A track cleared,
For hauling loot,
Ant engineered.

21st Feb:
Stupid bananas,
Thirst to slake,
Give them water,
Stems break.

22nd Feb:
You tiny treeshrew,
Really should flee,
Next time,
Might not be me.

23rd Feb:
Rain,
Undelivered,
Mulberries,
Withered.

24th Feb:
Banana leaves gone,
Seen too late,
Another cow,
Through garden gate.

25th Feb:
To stamp,
A compulsive need,
On venomed menace,
Of centipede.

26th Feb:
In garden haven,
Termites burrow,
Away from land,
Of flood and furrow.

27th Feb:
Plucked by hawk,
Pigeon breast,
Monitor lizard,
Ate the rest.

28th Feb:
Tailorbird nest,
Finally found,
Leaves with stitches,
Carefully bound.

29th Feb:
Stabbed by thorns,
A splinter lingers,
Snagged by others,
Now blooded fingers.