Buttercups

The fields near our house are covered with buttercups at the moment, some almost as tall as I am ... their bright golden petals look so cheerful in the sunshine!


"There must be fairy miners
Just underneath the mould,
Such wondrous quaint designers
Who live in caves of gold.

They take the shining metals
And beat them into shreds;
And mould them into petals,
To make the flowers' heads.

Sometimes they melt the flowers
To tiny seeds like pearls,
And store them up in bowers
For little boys and girls.

And still a tiny fan turns
Above a forge of gold,
To keep, with fairy lanterns,
The world from growing old."

(Wilfred Thorley - Buttercups)