Autumn Elegy
Autumn leaves come tumbling down:
Orange, yellow, shades of brown;
Sun-dried, shaken, lost their grip:
Sailing breeze-borne like a ship;
Tossing, tacking, left and right:
Unpredictable their flight;
Watch them wander down the street,
Where in huddled heaps they meet;
Left behind their mother tree:
Weeping still as each floats free.
In the country of the Highlands and ‘och aye the noo’
lives the known Scottish animal, the great heilan’ coo.
In Scotland that’s actually the word used for cow.
They’d say ti like we do if they just knew how.
The cow is magnificent, with long woolly hair.
He’s shaggy and soft but can give you a scare.
With strong curly horns used for scratching his back,
his colours are silver or ginger or black.
His diet is many of greens, hay and straw.
He withstands bad weather that’s freezing and raw.
A fringe that is thick protects eyes in a storm
and eyelashes too as the insects can swarm.
The coo will be farmed for superior beef.
His hearing’s not great – as the Scots would say, “deef”.
His temperament’s friendly, look out for one, do
to take your own picture of a real Heilan’ Coo.
Australian Children’s Poetry 