The Songs of Spring
The dustmen used to sweep the street
after emptying the bins,
now the wind does it.
A blackbird perched on a rooftop
sings her song of fear and warning
as my cat waits, indifferent,
in the middle of the garden,
licking his paws
and cleaning his head.
Sitting in the front room I hear
a rising, chattering, shrieking
and in the corridor find the cat
with a fledgling blackbird
in his mouth,
which he drops and knocks about,
as it scrabbles from wall to wall
across the floor,
trying to escape from me.
They never accept rescue.
It lies, eyes clenched, in my hands,
heart whirring, like a phone
sending a silent, urgent message.
I take it out the front
and hide it under a low shrub,
hoping its mother will find
and resurrect it, knowing
it will lie there,
quivering, as if dreaming,
and hear the cars,
the crash of the dustmens' truck,
the songs of Spring.
Page(s) 26-27
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