Journey of Words

April time and the air is breezy
Chiff-chaff song fills the shaded woodland
Larks ascend above greening pastures
Lambs learn to stretch their legs
Go too far then start bleating
Anxious ewes call them back
Was that a cuckoo I heard?

School holidays and children playing
There's laughter and tears coming from the park
Bicycle bells and pattering feet
Kiss Chase screams and exclaims of "It!"
Somewhere a baby's hungry and  starts crying
The mother's soothing words reduce the tension
Was that a cuckoo I heard?

The traffic's light few are vehicles moving
Everyone's cut back on their shopping
No one knows how long this might last 
Aircraft lift from a Suffolk field
Screaming engines on a bombing run
Heading south-east to Iran
Was that a cuckoo I heard?

News journalists on the radio
Trying to make sense of the madness
Experts of geo-politics explaining
Nobody would let the Nuclear Football come into play
The Constitution has baked in rules
To stop a demagogue or a crazy
That is a cuckoo I'm hearing

~

n.b. NaPoWriMo 2026 Day 8 prompt: Repeated phrase inverted or contradicted, (or something).

CLP. 07/04/2026