On Badgers

Badgers clean out the bedding from their setts at twilight
And replace it with preferably dried grass to dry out overnight
And then go searching for food in the fields under the darkened sky
Since badgers are wary and known to be shy

At the cruelty of humans badgers have suffered their share
As recorded in a great poem by the nineteenth century poet John Clare
A poem that is read and recited by many today
On the death of a badger in the cruelest way

In the twentieth century badgers were culled as carriers of  T B
Or is it that cattle give T B to badgers some on this agree
And that huge culls on badgers too place seems a terrible shame
Among the true friends of Nature few humans one could name

I got to know of badgers when i was a boy
And learning of their ways i used to enjoy
But going back the years this does seem long ago
And time that ages has since become my foe.