National Poetry Day Message Poem by Jill Townsend

Liz Brownlee ♦ October 6, 2016 ♦ Leave a comment

To the Panamanian Gold Frog

.

You gesture with a little wave

to see off any new arrival –

other male frogs as brave

as you, who gesture with a wave.

But now the situation’s grave:

a fungus threatens your survival.

Your gesture with a little wave

may not see off this new arrival.

.

.

© Jill Townsend

The Panamanian Gold Frog is probably extinct in the wild now – it was a unique frog that lived by torrential rivers and which signalled to its mates with waves as croaking would not be heard above the sound of the water.