MURMURATIONS OF LOVE
There was a starling sky
Yesterday over Rye
The arc of cloudless blue
Quite frequently changing its hue
as we watched the songbirds fly-by
You and me walking hand in hand
Along this wild and windy headland
The starlings singing high above
Sketching their murmurations of love.
THE EMUS
Fuck you
Said the Emu
Though of course
I couldn’t be sure
It was an Emu at all,
Never having seen a live one before;
Well, not crossing the road
Ahead of me anyway;
Part of a group
That resembled a hen party;
(or should that be Emu party?)
A troop of tarty Emus with cropped hair,
Johnny Rotten aficionados’, perhaps?
Teetering across the never-ending road
In the Australian outback;
Chaperoned by a wedge-tailed eagle…
Chaperoned?
Who looked just as likely
To sink its teeth
Into their browning flesh
As guide them safely to the other side.
Perhaps it was the eagle
Who said ‘fuck you’?
In the fading light
I couldn’t be certain
Of anything.
A DIFFERENT RACE
The lighted first-floor windows illuminate them
Their good sides always facing outwards
Like so many beautiful birds they perch;
Silently caged,
Mouthing ‘For Sale’ pleasantries
Outside
Others less beautiful ply the darkness
Stalked by vermin
And the ghosts of their childhood
There is a rage
Unfurling flags of despair;
‘Look at what you have done’
Some are shouting
‘Don’t you care?’
These articulate ones are the ugliest
The least loved
And the loneliest
GILDED BIRDS
The only beauty left
Is the struggle for perfection
Beauty is asking to be used
Real beauty endures
Like a rhythm or a cadence
Or a sphere
Beauty is an unknown face
Somewhere, in that place
Where something has happened,
Or will soon.
THE DANCE OF THE CRANES
Long-necked and longer-legged
They shimmer among the reeds
Crazy-dancing in the breeze
High-stepping, wing-flapping
Bouncing high in springy leaps
Then a pause
To step lightly here,
Tread gaily there
Duets in the sun
Heads bowed.
Balletically symmetric
It ends in a crescendo
That is electric
It is love they are dancing about
This joyful abundance
Knowing no bounds
Feeling no pain
You and I, my love
Shall soon learn
To dance like the cranes
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