The white birch in the garden is entering its autumnal colours

Green into red into brown a process whose certainty mothers

My gloomy thoughts on ageing and bodily deterioration,

A conventional metaphor which does no justice to the efloration

Of high autumn nor to the trees’ wise preparation for the cold.

Leaves are good for drawing food from roots and for the bold

Pageantry of chlorophyll but when the air and soil are frozen

They use more energy than they are worth, green motion

Ceases, and reds and browns get a brief exposure. The base

Of each leaf then grows a cutting tool which separates

The leaf and seals the twig for winter. Any residual nourishment

From leaves is withdrawn into the tree’s body. All this is meant

For survival and renewed life in Spring.

                                                                     Human ageing is different.

My failing eyesight, frequent urination, imperfect balance, slow

Typing speed, have no future advantage but only a big hello

To incapacity and death. I have seen people dear to me face

These courageously: I hope I can do it with as good a grace.

 

 

“Zionism is racism.” Well, there is the word of socialist middle

Classism, which is boo to fascism, ok to capitalism, hey diddle

Diddle to trans- sexism, but all in this strange arena where concepts

Are at war with each other and can be damaged by definition or swept

To ignominy by conceptual contamination, without any engagement

Of human actors. Somewhere there are Jews who take the ancient

 Vision of Zion to mean a homeland for Jews shared with all races

In peace and justice. And some who want the land as a grace

For Jews alone, as citizens anyway, the rest to be resident aliens.

Others again want it just forJews, gentiles are beyond-the-palians

Or corpses if they come too near. The useful thing is not an ism

That closes off debate, but welcome for the wisdom

Of the first group, politics to persuade the second, and firm force

To restrain the third. Confucius thought you could mend the mores

Of a society if you righted the language of justice, but maybe that’s why

He was never given rule by responsible people over any community.

 

 

The marine Aquarium at Macduff in Aberdeenshire shows

In video how it returns to the North Sea a Lesser Octopus

Which has been resident with it for six months, the maximum

Time they will keep this animal away from its underwater home

After which they will replace it with another, enabling visitors

To learn that the sphere that looks like a head is a trickster

Body which holds most of its organs, but only one of its brains.

The other eight are in its arms, or legs, which can maintain

Independent action. Easily spotted children envy the camouflage

Generated by changing colour and the freedom to dodge

Pursuers by elongating the body to slip through a keyhole.

Alien in physique it can enjoy human touch and be cajoled

To play games. In the wild it is often alone in its den, so is not

Unhappy in a tank cleaned every day, with food provided. Squat

When still, it is graceful in movement as now it propels itself away

From its minder back into its true home. In the time of its captivity

Thousands of humans have been killed in Putin’s warmmmm, Israel’s slaughter

Continues in Gaza, Trump threatens Greenland, ground that ought to

be protceted is polluted, life on earth abused, yet one lesser octopus

May remember its six months with human beings in Macduff as glorious.