NATURE doesn't always get it right.

Jane Overton is sympathetic to the plight of the hare whose winter coat turns white for snow that doesn't come. The little poem concludes her new pamphlet Short-term Parking (Calder Wood Press, £4.50).

WARM WINTER

White hare regards

black heather,

brown grass

and rusty bracken,

unaware

that ice caps crack and

his old, safe winter robe

sends shining signals to

the lord of air

"Eat me".

Much finer to

clothe him in

camouflage like

quartz flash and

water flickering down rock;

true jewels

for a mountain king.