Valerie Thornton writes poetry, short stories and creative writing textbooks. She has held two Royal Literary Fund Writing Fellowships at Glasgow University. Her tutoring embraces mainstream and specialist groups, school teachers and the OU. Her latest creative-writing textbooks are The Writer's Craft, and The Young Writer's Craft (Hodder Gibson). Her poetry collection is Catacoustics (Mariscat Press).
S2 Environmental Studies
We're talking puffins and terns
and the Braer and the oil
and the sandeels, but that threat
was then, when they were two:
'Does anyone know a greater threat
to our puffins and terns today?'
'Bird flu!' Kevin bursts out.
'Well, maybe…' I ponder tactfully
and guide them to global warming
and no sandeels to fill beaks and bills,
which, as Kevin then points out,
will stop the bird flu too.
Back to New Writing
