Were listless and damp;
For us foragers
Outside the camp
The woods were wet,
The trappings few;
Half-hearted hunters,
We each one knew
That in camp the king
Spent his days in plots,
The soldiery squabbled,
The women burned pots;
And pointless abandon
Like mist on the downs
Fuddled men’s minds
To next-day frowns.
The priests ignored
In their leaking tent
Prepared for a birth
Unsure what it meant.
In the distance the sea
Rocked the boats it bore:
An army was planting
Black flags on the shore.
====================
© December 2015
