Flood Response

You may have seen the pictures

Of wading cows and sheep

And wondered how a farmer

Can cope with floods that deep

I know some farms diversify

 But now I’ve seen it all

Pigs are learning breast stroke

And chickens the front crawl

Dogs do doggy paddle

And ducks have always swum

But cows don’t seem that streamlined

With horns and bony bum

Yet now it seems they’re learning

With inner tubes, with ease

To overcome the lack of land

And graze like manatees

Like bleating woolly icebergs

The sheep aren’t just surviving

They’re jumping off the shippon roof

They’re really good at diving

Some cows are just amazing

If left unsupervised

They put on hats and nose-clips

They’re swimming synchronised

The ducks are teaching chickens

To waterproof their feathers

And now equipped with flippers

They’re swimming in all weathers

I know it looks for all the world

They’re well and truly trapped

But the animals are not that dumb

They’re learning to adapt.

Steve Blakesley © 2014