Poem: And, and…

'And welcomed the birds coming to have their fill of the ripening fruit…'

by Jonathan Lingham 10th July 2026

And when we had walked enough
rashly we set our blanket in the shade of 
a fractured mulberry tree, and lay down together.
And looked up through the leaves and 
watched the clouds drift across the June sky. 
And welcomed the birds coming to have their fill of 
the ripening fruit… young blackbirds 
still with their speckled breast feathers. 
A pair of jays. An already fat wood pigeon. 
And we dozed.