The Academi Cardiff International Poetry Competition

Robert Saxton

Scouting For Lovers

At night in woods where lovers are thought to be present,
bear in mind the constellations will be partially obscured
by branches in winter, by the leaf canopy in summer,
and you cannot be certain you will not lose your way.

When striving to acquaint yourself with constellation fragments,
practise by placing intricate cardboard cutouts of trees
over your star map - you will soon learn to recognize
Orion without his belt, Andromeda without her girdle.

At night in woods where lovers may be on the move,
remember that no twig snaps without good reason;
also, that a couple is likely to maintain communication
by occasionally giving the call of their patrol animal.

Study hedgehogs, badgers, foxes and the like,
their cries, purrs and gasps, their odd little clicks -
without such knowledge scoutcraft is incomplete.
Equally, learn their habits - hedgehog, inventor of fire,

Or the prickly flush on a lover’s throat, rolling among fruits,
returning with apples to its young in a hollow tree,
badger drumming on its stomach at full moon,
or disguised a monk to promote its insatiable appetites,

Fox changing into a young man to entice a woman,
or a woman to entice a young man, or greeting the sunrise
by kneeling on its hindlegs and stretching its forelegs
on the ground, easily mistaken for your scoutmaster.