Monday 13 June 2011

Pigeon post.

this is a very early rough draft. Just notes really.


A song for last year's wife.

This spring
a pigeon scratched a rough nest
on the ledge outside the kitchen window
The ledge where you grew parsley and mint
and the scarlet geranium you nurtured from a cutting
taken on a drunken walk home
from outside the neighbours house.

The pots have gone
the herbs long dead
the geranium fell to the basement last winter

leaving space for the rough nest
in which a pigeon laid a solitary egg
It was not a good nest
I scolded the bird for such slapdash househusbandry
but we watched over that egg
as I fed her seeds and crumbs
and fretted with her.

On the third day
a jackdaw took the egg
there was nothing I nor the pigeon could do
a jackdaw took the egg
save make accusative stares
a jackdaw took the egg

I did not take the egg and I could not save the egg
she did not take the egg and could not save the egg.

but I think we equally cared for that egg
until we decided to blame each other for it's loss.

I have not seen the pigeon since and I have let the pigeon go
but the egg still haunts me.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The egg became everything I lost
All the balls I never caught
It isn't however the empty tomb of Christ
There's a limit to symbolism

P Perry aged 53 and a half