The Dirigible Balloon
Poetry for Children

Windfalls

The slugs besieged me in a band
to petition me first-hand.
They said, ‘You don’t own the land –
you’re just the custodian.

‘Please leave every fallen apple
in the grass’s shady dapple;
never let your fingers grapple –
we slugs need to munch the scrapple.’

So we reached a compromise:
I’ll be leaving where it lies
any apple with wormy eyes
or specks of rot or tiny size,

but take as my due gardener’s share
the perfect ones the fruit bugs spare.
In fact they’re really rather rare;
Mother Nature thinks that’s fair.

About the Writer


David Thompson

David had a long career in translation, editing, interpreting and publishing with the United Nations in New York and Bangkok and then with WHO in Geneva, returning to live in England some years ago. He wrote his first poetry collection (Days of Dark and Light: Recent Poems, Hobnob Press, 2021) mostly during lockdown. His second collection (Where The Love Is) was published by Hobnob Press in 2023.