We look at an Atlas and know what we see.
The shapes of the countries are plain as can be.
There's Europe, America, then Hindustan!
All part of a terribly obvious plan.
So Italy's shaped like a boot? Well, why not?
For that was the shape that old Italy got
In the days when the boiling mud hardened to rock!
The shapes never give us the tiniest shock.
We're so used to the map and the way it's designed!
We see it as normal; so clearly outlined.
There's an island called Britain up there in the sea
And China is just where that country should be.
But just take a look at the Atlas above,
And see the phenomenon I'm speaking of.
If the oceans had lowered in some other way
Our countries would all look so different today.
But one fact is quite certain! There's just no escaping
The squabbling and fighting and killing and raping
Would all have gone-on; all the feuding and fuss!
For one thing would still be the same and that's 'us'!
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BORROWED BEAUTY
A sky as reflective as water;
White of itself but flushed
With the angry sunset it's facing.
It's a feminine sky. It has blushed.
Suffused with the colours of evening,
It borrows a rosier hue,
But soon it will fade into blandness.
Its moments of glory are few.
*
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PS
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PS
Thanks, Mike, for turning the knife in the wound! (He knows I always get homesick..... after 55 years...... in April!)
An English relation has sent me photos of daffodils and I thought I'd share them. To the left of photo One is the English Channel (yes, right 'at the bottom of the garden) so the setting is quite delicious.
Here, chill is creeping into the wind.
Thanks, Mike!
