What's
in a Name? Today the wagtail finally
forgot
that I once called it sigl-di-gwt.
It didn’t give a
tinker’s toss,
kept right on rooting in river moss,
(no longer mwswgl)
relieved, perhaps,
that someone would be noticing less
about its habits.
Magpies’ fear of men
lessened, as we’d lost one means
(the word pioden)
of keeping track
of terrorist birds out in the back.
Lleian wen
is not the same as ‘ smew’
because it’s another point of view,
another bird. There’s been a cull:
gwylan’s gone and we’re left with
‘gull’
and blunter senses till that day
when ‘swallows’, like
gwennol, might stay away
from
Keeping Mum
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