It is Day 527 of the daily poems. Today our poet Jenna Plewes, following our theme of Summer and Courtship, brings us the love song of frogs. Sadly frog populations in the UK are declining, under pressure from factors such as land use and climate change. Jenna “saw hundreds of tadpoles yesterday, so the frogs have been busy!! Thank goodness they are still around. I wrote this poem in 2014 when we had a pond seething with life.” And the man who sang like a frog, Clarence “Frogman” Henry, slipped off this mortal coil last month at the age of 87.
They have arrived!
They have found her
buckled themselves
in a leathery harness
around her soft bubble of flesh
three pairs of eyes
bulge and blink
the bundle of bodies turns over
the males jerk and kick
roll her between them
she slides like a tongue
between two rubbery lips
hours float like weed around them
the water stirs from time to time
as it grows dark there’s a rhythmic
purr of satisfaction
the sound of summer nights
stars, slow kisses
the love song of frogs.
Jenna Plewes