Dressed in jet like the villain
of a minor Jacobean tragedy
is nervy-bird, up-tight.
Sleek wheeler-dealer, steel-eyed
with slashings of smile,
lets no-one up-stage him:
muscles bullying in from the wings,
ready for a fight;
accosts robins full-on;
trips-up greenfinches;
tackles sparrows from behind.
Or trounces, automaton,
across patio and lawn to choreograph
his birdbath-splashing-routine,
then diagonals away
to skulk among shadows,
swaggering beneath rhododendron
and beech-hedging,
his dagger of beak unsheathed.
Hopes he'll get away with his asides
where he runs through leather-jackets
and makes the fat worm squirm.
Soliloquy is his forte:
adorns the morning chorus
with mellow flutings
till ratcheting the action to panic level
with his chattering patter
accusing all the world
of being on the edge of danger.
Dies off-stage,
unsung, unmourned.
Acting Blackbird by Roger Elkin | Garden Lavender Poetry Reed Diffuser Set
$20.00Price
