– 14 –

A Birdless Tree

Casually someone described a tree
that must have held three hundred birds
felled during the day. At dusk they returned
circling in phantom shape to the place

as though bewailing a giant limb.
A huge sketch of panic. Beating the bounds
where air was filled with shelter once. Some
cried some circled. A navigational blip?

But no the garden was the same, only lighter.
Here was the lawn on which crumbs appeared
so why was the whole tenement taken?
Some rose into the air, expecting ascension.

They circled for ages. Just like human shock.
And then they must have decided on other arrangements.
Scattered perhaps in groups. Darkness came on.
The tree sketch remained picked out by stars.