Life in Poetry reading, writing, reflecting

Life in Poetry reading, writing, reflecting
April showers bring May flowers

Saturday 9 February 2013

birds

A sparrow and a robin red-breast
bicker over a piece of bread
thrown onto the terrace
this morning.

Robin lurches at Sparrow.
Sparrow is content with his meal.
Why ? Other bits wait not far
away but Robin wants the catch
Sparrow is pecking at.

Beat of feathers, stab of beak.
Then they both fly away,
perch on the bush
and wait.

Blackbird pruning his dress
on the tallest branch
of the lime tree in the rain
swings down and seizes
a fat morsel. Ripping at the rim.

Robin and Sparrow swoop
back and fight again.
Two other sparrows share a bite.
All fly off to the bush

and watch the stage by the kitchen 
window. They enter one by one, two
by two to dance about the offerings.
A patter of feet, a ballet of wings
a battle of beaks.



©Susan Baury Rouchard