Lost Species poem 6: Lesley Quayle

Lesley Quayle's poem today addresses the wider issue of loss of habitat, a major contributor to loss of species, of course.

For Planes To Fly

For planes to fly,

they needed land. They needed

meadows, becks and woods. They needed gardens.

They needed setts and dens and forms and burrows,

dewponds, farmyards, one old farmhouse

sheltering downwind of the flight-path.

Barn owls evicted, a heronry unfledged,

crow colonies uprooted, scattered,

foxes and elusive fallow deer exiled,

migrants of the edgelands.

And where I watched the milk-breathed cattle,

hares boxing through whiskery grasses,

where yellow rattle, clover, chamomile

and thyme beguiled small bees,

whole galaxies of butterflies

and stained-glass, steampunk dragonflies,

a pyroclastic flow of runways, aprons,

hotels, car-parks smelts the landscape,

long draughts of tarmac crowned with concrete,

set with steel and glass – the sheen of progress.

And when we said we minded–

for the beetles, for the tiny spiders, for palmate newts

and small, brown frogs, discreet, squat toads,

for fish fry in the beck, wild orchids,

a parlous glint in primrose banks –

they frowned, noodled their brows

their environmental dyslexia profound.

‘For planes to fly, we need the land.’

Lesley Quayle

Lesley says: 'The poem... was written in response to an article in the 'Yorkshire Post' about recent proposals to expand and develop Leeds/Bradford airport to cater for their desired passenger throughput from 3 million p.a. to 5.1 Since the airport is built on top of a moor, surrounded by agricultural land and greenbelt, small farming communities and towns, the continuing desecration of flora, fauna and human habitats continues unabated despite the environmental cost.'