Arial acrobats arrive from Africa
To perform their stunts
Above the marsh, heath and field
Of England’s countryside.

Falco subbuteo, otherwise the hobby
With long swept back wings,
An acrobatic ace,
Is swift, lithe and graceful.

It moves silently over open spaces
Looking for its prey
Of chafers and dragonflies,
Of swifts and martins too.

This small falcon is sheer poetry in motion,
is also a thief,
using the old nests
Of rooks and crows.

Here it lays its eggs and raises its young
Then, returning south
To Africa once more

© Felicity Bullock