Crows ***, FV Options

[Eisa]

This is an old one I've decided to revise again. The original can be seen in the archives here


I've taken up Sylvia's suggestion and moved the 'lunch time news' stanza from the beginning. However, I didn't put it at the end but just before the last stanza - where I had written it in the original!

Crows

Their ruckus startles --
flocking across the sky
like inkblots splattering
blue embossed paper.

The murder flurries to the lawn:
wings beat,
beaks stab,
piercing shrieks. I wince.

My dog leaps from a nap, yapping,
charges to scatter them.
Surging to poplar arms
they chatter in protest.

Silence.

Roses scent the air;
where grass fringes their bed
my pooch noses the prostrate victim,
still alive, bloodied neck, pecked.
I hotfoot for my mobile.

An avian ambulance arrives,
carries away the listless pigeon
in a cardboard box stretcher;
life’s pendulum swings.

Radio One Lunch-time News:
A gang'’s frenzied attack
leaves a lone passer-by with critical injuries
in Intensive Care.

kraa-kraa-kraa
Crows taunt from a sycamore --
wood pigeons perch in a wing-to-wing line,
prattling on next-door’s roof.
ru-hoo ru ru-hoo