Reptales
()
About this ebook
i'm sure many readers who read this book have had at some stage in their life experienced that horrible feeling, depending on their personal fear of course, of coming into contact with a scaly creature ranging from the tiny skink right thro ugh to an enormous python that has left the hairs standing up on the back of the neck. the exposure is etched firmly into the mind forever as possibly one of the luckiest escapes in one's life.
reptales has been written to acknowledge all these people who have over the period of my life-time sat down over a cup of tea or a beer around a campfire and when the subject of snakes, lizards, goannas etc. has arisen, have come forward with their weird but wonderful story of the narrow escape from the clutches of one of these dangerous scaly creatures, that they would have us awed listeners believe seek out humans just for the pleasure of frightening us half to death when in reality the poor creature would be quite content with not having any contact with us at all.
snakes in particular prefer to escape what normally becomes their tormentor and it is in some of these verses written that will show the contempt and stupidity that can occur when there is a preference to kill instead of the philosophy of 'live and let live!'
in fact reptiles can become friendly and loveable pets, and in these modern times, many people have a friendly snake slithering around their lounge room and some have even come to the conclusion a snake is a wonderful preventative against car theft. a blue-tongue or a stumpy-tail make wonderful ornaments on an arm and readily accept a strawberry or piece of mince meat contentedly. maybe you the reader should consider a shiny friendly red-bellied black!
Lindsay Laurie
Born in the Royal Women's Hospital in Melbourne in 1946 and as a child I lived at Deer Park before my family moved to Longwarry in West Gippsland. I have one brother who was born at the Warragul Hospital in 1948. For forty-five years I lived at Longwarry, being educated at the Longwarry State School and the Drouin High School. I left school at sixteen and for thirty years worked in the dairy industry at Longwarry Milk Factory, employed by four company's working as a butter maker, dryer operator and at times either a cream room or milk room operator. I never moved but the companies did. For four tomato seasons I worked for White Crow as an evaporator operator. Ill health with a muscle wasting disease forced me to retire eventually. My sporting interests have always been Australian Rules football, Cricket and playing Basketball. I played all my football and cricket for Longwarry, but played basketball for a number of clubs. My hobbies over the years have ranged from keeping aviary birds, especially finches, growing native fruit plants as well as attempting to grow everything I could from either seed or cuttings. I am one of the founding members of the modern and very successful Longwarry fishing club that in it's first three years won a number of state trophies. My preference was river fishing for either blackfish or the Gippsland freshwater crayfish. I have been married twice. My first marriage failed after seven years and from that marriage I have three children, Karen, Janet and Brad. My second marriage with Joy has seen a long and happy period of thirty-two years. We have three children, Teresa, Glenn and Megan, plus nine grand children, and a tenth grand child due. I also keep in constant touch with my brother Ron, who lives in Melbourne. He is a constant source of information toward my writing. From 1993 until 2010 I lived in Irymple Victoria, and today, I am back in my home town Longwarry in Gippsland and because of my disability, I spend most of my time writing about the people in my life, and of course as you will read, fictional people who I do not wish to have in my life through this Creek family. November 1 2012 Lindsay Laurie.
Read more from Lindsay Laurie
Where Chocolate Lily's Grow Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGo on... take the Bait! Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFerals on the Farm Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsForest, Stream, and Open Spaces Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Reptales
Related ebooks
Crocodile Death Roll Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTurtle Feathers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRescue at Lake Wild Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mountains of Dreams Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Not-So-Grim Folk Tales Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNight Creature Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Watersky: Life at the Lodge, #4 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCreatures: Original Dark Fairy Tales & Fables Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Women, the Camels and the Dholes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCat Tales Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Crow that Reaps Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAnimal Moments Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWoodsong Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Creatures from a Watery World Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLiving With All The Other Creatures Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBast's Chosen Ones & Other Cat Adventures Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings101 Poems for Children Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTurtle Diaries, It’s a Hard Shell Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSlices of a Starchild's Life: Volume 3 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMarmwood Book 8: Tales of Tossledowns Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Observable Characteristics of Organisms: Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLooking To Belong Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSunburn Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAnimal Life: Poems Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAnimals In Our World: A - Z Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSiren's Curse Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsZombie Kong Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Nemesis, The Wizard and The Waterfall. Book One. Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Certain Strange Wolf Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDove Strong Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Poetry For You
Flowers of Evil and Other Works: A Dual-Language Book Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5When Angels Speak of Love Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Notebook of a Return to My Native Land: Cahier d'un retour au pays natal Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow to Speak French for Kids | A Children's Learn French Books Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5One Hundred and One Poems by Paul Verlaine: A Bilingual Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5French Language Learning: Your Beginner’s Guide to Easily Learn French While in Your Car or Working Out! Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsYou Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Divine Comedy: Inferno, Purgatory, and Paradise Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Bluets Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rumi: Bridge to the Soul: Journeys into the Music and Silence of the Heart Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Night Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unfortunately, It Was Paradise: Selected Poems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5French For Beginners: A Practical Guide to Learn the Basics of French in 10 Days!: Language Series Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The River in the Belly Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Bell Jar: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Winter Hours: Prose, Prose Poems, and Poems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Conference of the Birds Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Collection of Poems by Robert Frost Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5If I Were Another: Poems Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Pilgrim Bell: Poems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beginning French for Kids: A Guide | A Children's Learn French Books Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSelected Poems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Getting Started in French for Kids | A Children's Learn French Books Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Anatomical Venus Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRilke on Love Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Rumi: The Art of Loving Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gravity of Existence Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related categories
Reviews for Reptales
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Reptales - Lindsay Laurie
REPTALES
A SELECTION OF POETRY BASED ON REPTILE CONFRONTATIONS
Written
by
Lindsay Laurie
Poems to highlight our scaly friends who are never far away from us in their hiding places and inadvertently frighten the living daylights out of many of us if we happen to stumble across them enjoying their favoured pastime; sun-baking.
SMASHWORDS EDITION
PUBLISHED BY:
Lindsay Laurie on Smashwords
Reptales
©Lindsay Laurie January 2013
Cover image: ©Gary Rymer
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
≈≈≈≈≈≈
CONTENTS
Introduction
Plague at Harold’s Creek
Sharing Lunch on the Latrobe
Sitting with the Enemy
Aspiring Olympian
Tiger Snake Stomp
Unravelling a Trio
Harry’s Tiger Trap
Silver beet Surprise
Sofa Hiding Spot
Mountain Retreat Nursery
Where the Murray Meets the Chicken
An Acrobatic Nature
Scavengers of Lake Tyers
Diving Practice
Rubber Mileage
Naked Dash
It’s Green! It’s Active! It’s Lost!
‘Wheely’ Dangerous
A Question Answered
Replacing the pet Collie Pup
Baled Up
‘Blind’ Faith
‘Whatcha’ Reading
‘Sleepy’ Tiger
Unintended Nature Calls
Heeling the Sole
Bed Mates
Know your Polecats Fred
Snakebite! Safety First
Saved by the Net
Three Times for the Whack
Quick Recovery
Close Action Camera Shot
Waders Filling
A Weak Mind Feeds a Strong Heart
Barking Tigers
Greenies
For Cars Sake
‘Crazy’ Ray
Community Need
The Final Hiss
≈≈≈≈≈≈
INTRODUCTION
These little yarns you’re ‘bout to read, will put a shiver in your life,
when you think about these situations, and found yourself in strife,
as you, like me in work and pleasure, put life and limb at stake,
and hairs stand out upon our necks, when confronted by a snake.
Of course it’s only when you see them do you feel so ill at ease,
never realizing close at hand, there’s a big’un no one sees
probably just a foot away, with it’s fork tongue seeking heat.
They really are reclusive ‘blighters,’ so just check around your feet.
Many times while camping in the scrub, and even in the home,
a snake has crawled across a body and the soul has never known.
They have lived in bedrooms, pantries, and lounge rooms in the house.
I suppose you’ve never thought about why you rarely see a mouse.
And if by chance you come across a sloughed skin in your yard.
Hope like heck the moult is over for that’s when a snake gets hard.
Its eyes you see, are out of focus, and cannot tell what’s near.
When you make a sudden move that frightened snake strikes out of fear.
Snakes like to hide throughout the day ‘though will sun-bake on a log,
and prefer to hunt their prey at night; their favourite food is frog.
And a frog will clamour for a moth that’s attracted by a light.
And where’s the light! That’s right. Your house is lit up well at night.
I’d be flamin’ careful where I walked in the darkness ‘round the home.
There could be a hundred snakes about and you have never known.
Each with a pang for human flesh or to test their venom’s power.
Striking, hissing, crawling over you… in the darkness as you cower.
Snakes! Viscous scheming evil creatures, Satan designed in Hell.
The scourges of mankind, slimy, dirty… rumours I must dispel.
A snake is shy and quite retiring, who hunts vermin on its own,
and will live side by side contented providing it is left alone.
Now goannas they are different; they have enormous tearing claws.
Teeth that resemble needles and such power in their jaws.
I hear that if they bite you; from their scavenging