HOODWINKED

My Grandmother raised black Cocker Spaniels.

She called them “Midnights”.

Her care of them taught me

kindness, love, and quick thinking.

My dog’s name was “Glow,”

short for Glowworm.

She had her own song,

“Glow little glowworm, glimmer, glimmer

Shine little glowworm, shimmer, shimmer.”

The song is actually about a beetle,

and the bird that sang through the night,

while the beetle’s larval sac cast a brilliant light.

The nightingale exhausted, needed a snack,

but the glowworm quickly interrupted,

Do you admire my brilliant light,

as much as I admire your singing?

I know you’d hate to do me wrong,

as I would hate to ruin your winging!

Thus was born a diplomatic grub,

and an important law of nature.

The Nightingale and the Glow Worm’ by WILLIAM COWPER (1731-1800) based on the Latin of Vincent Bourne (1695-1747)