PROTEST SONG IN the mummers play 'Who killed cock robin'

Hear the Whimbrel wail, hear the Ptarmigan sneeze,

Hear the choke of the Long-tailed Duck. 

Hear the wheezing Scaup and the peevish Swift 

And the Curlew cursing its luck. 

Hear the buzz of the Corncrake combing for seeds

That are wild and not chemically bred …

In pesticide potions that poison the soil …

Causing run-off and rivers of dead. 

Don’t close your ears to the Woodcock’s scoff

And the laugh of the white-fronted goose

And the throttle gasp of the Phalarope

With its red-neck caught in the noose.

Mark the Herring Gull scream and the muttering Shag

Witness Petrel and Skua recoil,

Hear the squawk of the Puffin who cannot find fish.

See the Shearwater smothered in oil.

Hear the Sandpiper, Pochard, two Scoters, two Grebes,

The Goldeneye, Smew and the Ruff,

The Dunlin and Kittiwake, Roseate Tern

And Bewicks Swan warning “Enough!”

Know that “Big Food” farming, on land and at sea

Is causing our habitat loss

So the birds on this list are all seeing Red

‘Coz they know that we don’t give a toss.

You won’t hear the House Martin, Thrush or the Lark,

Nor Starling nor Linnet nor Sparrow,

For the Nightingale‘s requiem cutting the dark…

Grieves seventy-three not here tomorrow.

So listen-up humans!  (Our kith if not kin.)

Admit what you’re doing is wrong.

Stop farming for greed, and do what you can

To help our cries turn into song.