We say
The Quiet of the countryside
But actually
The countryside is
Quite a noisy place
The day begins with
The Dawn Chorus of
Birds and Bees
Bees buzzing
Birds trilling, cheeping, squawking, singing
Interspersed with the roosters
From the village calling
Kukkuru ku
(Definitely not Cock-a-doodle-doo)
In the day we hear
Children chattering on the way to school
Men whizzing by on bikes
Women laughing in the fields
Cows moo, goats bleat
The night sounds are different
The night jar’s metronome:
Tcho(n)k… tcho(n)k… tcho(n)k…
Owls hoot and screech
The slender loris keens
Of late, night and day
We have heard unusual
Squeals, grunts
Even groans
These sounds are not of animal origin:
Boughs of trees are scraping
Against one another:
The forest is talking to us!
Sunder and Sonati have been living and growing a forest on a small piece of land in Thekambattu in rural Tamil Nadu for the last 20 years. You can read their blogs here and here.