Sketchabout,, Botanic Gardens at the Lotus Pond

I missed the morning sketching class as I was on the School tennis run where naturally, as you will see, I took notes.  While I was sketching this, five ibises stalked past, two dusky moor hens walked by me, a neat-footed boy came right up and checked this out before I noticed him.  Two Indian ladies, one with a pink headscarf , a crocheted triangle in shell stitch, posed nearby me for a photograph.  Funny how a few weeks back I was drawing lotus flowers in a vase.

Lower Garden – Lotus Pond

Watching the lotus leaves, crowded, flippant,

in a lake subsumed by jostling, a party of flirts

who smile and stare, then blow the other way.

None are perfect, most blowsy

with torn edges, fading patches

and yellow margins, some younger leaves

pruned savagely by insects.

The pond heaves and shivers,

courts the wind, unlikely picnickers

they fill the field, while I try to push

a green puddle into shape.

Then a dusky moor hen steps past, [more timid

than a Coot, tamer than a swamp hen]

red and black feet latent with possibilities.