WRITING in Scots, as he often did, the Perth poet William Soutar shows a sardonic (and rather dark) humour in this tale of the frog and the toad.

(From his Selected Poems, Argyll Publishing, £7.99).

LAUCH WHAN YE CAN

'Lauch whan ye can,'

Said the puddock to the taed:

'For the fairest days are flichty,

And we're a lang while dead.'

'Hey!' sech'd the taed,

Wi a waggle o' his pow:

'I've juist buried my guid-brither

And I'm gey wae the noo.'

'Come awa, man,

Fash nae mair for what has been:

Lat's mak merry wi' the livin

Sae lang's our luck is in.'

Juist as he spak

He was trod on be a coo.

'May the Lord forgie me, puddock,

I'm lauchin herty noo.'