" Hippo Heaven "

                

                    " MUD ! "   

Glorious mud is the dish of the day.
A lovely melange of earth, crap and clay
There's grass fresh and green. It looks as it should
But underneath that lurks an ocean of MUD !

Each step that we take is a slip and a slide 
Whoever said "footpath" has blatantly lied.
Our deep cleated boots, don't grip, merely glide
This isn't a field. It's a swamp at full tide.-

"The next field we come to is bound to be dry"
Oh foolish old fellows. Look up at the sky
The clouds are not moving, They're not passing by.
Here comes the rain again. Rats ! - We could cry.

Let's get through that gate and see what we find
Surely it can't be as wet and unkind.
But the mud seems to smile as it waits by the gate.
And whispers "come on if you fancy your fate" 

A large glaucous lake. How deep can it be.
Over the ankle ? the calf ?.. or the knee?
Perhaps we can balance and edge down the  fence
Then climb on the gate. Can we stand the suspense ?

And so we sit straddling the top wooden bar
The mud on the other side deeper by far.
Climb down to the gloop ? or try with a leap
to straddle the slurry ?  S**t !  missed it - it's deep.

And so now our boots once gleaming and oiled.
Are dripping and evil. Much worse than just soiled.
Socks too are sodden, trousers weighed down
With a  thick stinking coating that's slimy and brown

Each boot takes an effort to drag from the mire
We stumble and strain to reach ground a bit higher
At last we break free to continue our plod 
Still carefully placing each foot on each sod
 
The next hedge we tackle is crossed by a style
No deep boggy gateway and that makes us smile
But the steps on the style are slippy with slime
left by the boots that climbed it last time.


The rest of the walk is a "Groundhog" repeat
We're covered in mud from our necks to our feet.
Even our faces have got the odd splat.
Why there's even a splodge on the top of my hat


But when we arrive at the place we began.
Our boots taken off and we've wiped off the "Tan"
What's all the thinking and what's all the talk
"What a brilliant day. So when's our next walk ?"