Ladybird Poem by Rebecca Dobson

Lend me your dreams ladybird
Lend me your femininity and prescision
Lend me delicate scuttling silence and unnoticed creeping busyness
Lend me your glossy armoured jacket
Lend me the dexterity to swoop and soar
and to rest on a blade of grass
in a square foot of garden as big as the whole world

Lend me a walk on a toddler's hand
and the pride of his marvelling, open-wide eyes
Lend me the soft bristles of an ear of corn
and the awesome magnitude of a country field
Lend me your anonymity and uniformity
Lend me the overpowering perfume of a single rose
and let me wander between its petals
Lend me your dreams ladybird
Lend me your penny-wide wingspan
and set me free