To a Turtle
O gallant knight in armour black
Blotched with grey and yellow squares,
A horny motto’s on thy breast:
Bravery it bears.
O turtle, paddling through the grass
That skirts the cobwebbed shining lawn!
Come tell me true: where journey you
This dewy dawn?
I smell a pond, and in it are
Young tadpoles, newly hatched and fresh,
And larvas of mosquitoes plump
And sweet of flesh;
And whirligigs, that streak and dart
Like water-lightning underneath
The greenish cat-tail spears, that shade
The frogspit heath.
And there is oozy, deep, soft mud
For me to lie and bask upon,
And dine on lizards fat, and sleek
Chameleon.
And there the bright-green, freckled frog
My only friend will always be.
To him I haste:—To you I bend
My jointless knee.
Robin Mackaye.