THE YELLOW RAPE OF THE COUNTRYSIDE

                                                                                 XVII

What is this crop that's spreading
Across our countryside -
Burying our green and pleasant land
Beneath a yellow tide.

Our landscape is soothing and gentle
And greenly refined,
Acres of aggressive yellow
Aggravate the mind.

A few splashes of colour
Brighten up the scene,
Mile after mile of strident lemon
Makes your senses reel.

But - when summer weather
Is dismal, drear and chill
It's a patch of captured sunshine
On a distant hill.

Written 25.5.88
(M1 - return from Cosford Air Museum)

TWINKLE TWINKLE LITTLE STAR, HOW I WONDER WHAT YOU ARE.

                                                                    XVI

With modern telescopes
We need wonder no more,
As massive new refractors
The heavens now explore.

You could be a pulsar,
Giant red or dwarf white,
An exploding supernova -
The astrologers' delight.

Perhaps you are a binary -
A comet from afar;
Or one of our own planets,
An ancient wandering star.

Could you be an asteroid
Or a distant sun?
Neutron star or nebula?
You could be any one.

Things were so much simpler
Centuries ago,
When a star was just a twinkling light
After the sunset glow.

Written February 1990