No shadow today for ol’ Blackberry Ben…
There’s hope for an end to the snows.
There’s hope in the rain and the fog and the ice
That winter will give up its woes.
“This funny”, he says, “that six weeks of the cold
Does on my ol’ shadow depend…
And six weeks of snow, ice, and wintery mix
will come before winter shall end.
“The first day of spring, in case you didn’t know,
Is more than six weeks from today,
But I say that hope in my shadow is vain:
‘Tis weather or not anyway!”
Tags: Blackberry, First Day Of Spring, Fog, Rain, Six Weeks, Snow Ice, Weather, Woes
Ol’ Blackberry Ben saw his shadow today
and slipped himself back in his hole.
“Another six weeks I will stow me away
to live underground like a mole.
Those humans can live with the ice and the snow
and fatten some more by the fire,
While I shall go hungry and thinner I’ll grow
as I in my burrow retire.
But ah! In six weeks I’ll emerge with my clan
to feast and to bask in the sun,
While citizens toil–both the woman and man–
when once the warm weather has come.
Now I have the best of the bargain of life–
a cozy home under the land:
I sleep in the winter along with my wife–
my children there close by my hand.
But humans must worry with funds and with food;
they fret about how to keep warm;
They run to and fro in a terrible mood,
concerned they’ll be caught in a storm.
They should learn a lesson from groundhogs below–
a lesson from under the sod:
To quit their pursuits and just go with the flow,
and let everything up to God.”
BB/jwb
Tags: Bargain, Bb, Blackberry, Burrow, Citizens, Feast, God, Groundhog Day, Groundhogs, Jwb, Mole, Six Weeks, Sleep, Sod, Sun, Underground, Warm Weather, Woman And Man
