A lone reflection for sorrow
A life-long mate brings mirth
Fledgling foretells a funeral
Charming broods a live birth
Superstitions sung Troubadours
Lyres to Morgan le Fay
Tidings from Constantinople
Ballads of Corvidae
Eden’s rebel conventicle
Quieting Linnets’ nests
Leatherjackets and long-coat tails
Thievish, murderous pests
Be courteous to the magpie; respectful of cunning and stealth
Moulted from Archaeopteryx; cast not by the Devil’s own self.
He did not stage the war to end all wars
Incongruous appellation re-writ
Scratch out the trenches with black, scaly claws
Peck open wounds in the orchestra pit
He dealt no harsh hand at Château Versailles
His enchanté the “clack-clack” of roulette
Raconteured not with sophistry allied
Carved no pound of flesh to settle bad debt
Metallicised wings unartilleried
Axes of scapulae feathered with white
As hunter his prey never pilloried
While cruelly quarried by gamekeeper’s right
Soft underbelly aloft with the blue
The war was ended. Still death wasn’t done
Ancient antagonist locked into view
Shot down from the sky at age twenty-one
Be courteous to the magpie; respectful of cunning and stealth
Moulted from Archaeopteryx; cast not by the Devil’s own self.
Napoleon’s Tawny parliament
Bound by The Great Book of Birds
Ordained only fish on a Friday
Clasped supper secretly furred
Bejewelled by the House of Fabergé
Rubies from robins’ eggs bled
By Orwellian proletariat
A rousing banquet to beg
Neither for pity nor parity
Hypocrisy unrestrained
A meritocratic clarity
Manger and grave Interveined
Be courteous to the magpie; respectful of cunning and stealth
Moulted from Archaeopteryx; cast not by the Devil’s own self.
