THE PUZZLED GAME-BIRDS

They are not those who used to feed us
When we were young – they cannot be –
These shapes that now bereave and bleed us?
They are not those who used to feed us,
For did we then cry, they would heed us

- If hearts can house such treachery
They are not those who used to feed us
When we were young – they cannot be!

Thomas Hardy, ca 1912

© 2003   Suffolk Naturalists' Society