The leaves on liquid ambar tree have turned a russet yellow <br />And balding oak stand in the rain like aged hoary fellow <br />And May stole through the silent wood and no one heard her coming <br />She came at dark in russet cloak when the frogmouth was humming. <br /> <br />On the high gum trees all the day the currawongs are calling <br />They come down from the high country when Autumn leaves are falling <br />Through winter in the Sherbrooke woods in flocks they sing together <br />You always hear them in the rain and in changeable weather. <br /> <br />The migratory birds have gone up north the wood and welcome swallow, <br />The pallid cuckoo and cuckoo shrike the call of Nature follow, <br />The migratory bird like migrant man at heart may be a rover <br />But she return home to breed when Winter days are over. <br /> <br />Deciduous trees will soon be bare 'til buds bloom in September <br />And they will wear their Summer green by dawning of December <br />If Winter come Spring must be near and homeward swallow winging <br />And Sherbrooke woods again resound to golden whistler singing <br /> <br />The May came in her russet cloak through woodland she stole quietly <br />Whilst ring tail possum on the tree from branch to branch stepped lightly, <br />She came unnoticed and unheard when boobook owl was calling <br />And withered leaves from oak and ash to woodland floor were falling.<br /><br />Francis Duggan<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-coming-of-may/
