The First Day Of Spring

Though bare are the hedgerows and few songbirds sing In far Northern Lands 'tis the first day of Spring A blanket of fog envelopes the old hill And the flood is bank high in the river and rill. The male redbreast sings on the naked birch tree His song not for joy but about territory The feathers puffed out on his lovely red breast He and his mate soon will be building their nest. Though the cold chill of Winter is still in the air In bare fields the daisies are to be seen everywhere And the swallows will soon be back from far away To fly o'er the valleys and fields all the day. The male blackbirds squabble about territory They stake out their boundaries invisible to me In Nature only the strongest multiply The genes of the weak are destined for to die. On the deciduous branches buds starting to show In around a month new leaves on them will grow The first day of Spring by the Northern hills And the flood is bank high in the rivers and rills.