“Bird species are disappearing at a scarcely conceivable rate.”
(‘Muscicapa Striata: The Spotted Flycatcher’)
Each spring as you stack up they journey north,
re-lay that nest in your old garden wall.
You catch them at their ease, such elegance;
ash brown above a creamy dappled breast.
They dart and twist, snap insects on the wing,
turn deftly back to where they started from.
Eggs warm to touch, as sheer as porcelain;
flecked shades of gilded bronze, the Midas brush.
Each year they leave, conceive strange distances,
exotic latitudes you’ve never seen.
You’ve flown and your old habitat’s turned down,
six houses scheme. No summer guests these days.
That’s progress, you concede, fast in the fourth
dimension where your travellers still breed.
Peter Branson, UK
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Peter Branson has been published by journals in Britain, USA, Canada, EIRE, Australia and New Zealand, including Acumen, Ambit, Envoi, Magma, The London Magazine, Iota, Frogmore Papers, The Interpreter’s House, Poetry Nottingham, Pulsar, Red Ink, The Recusant, South, The New Writer, Crannog, Raintown Review, The Able Muse and Other Poetry.
His first collection, “The Accidental Tourist”, was published in May 2008. A second collection was published at the beginning of this year by Caparison Press for ‘The Recusant’. More recently a pamphlet has been issued (May 7th) by ‘Silkworms Ink’. A third collection has been accepted for publication by Salmon Press, EIRE.
Very nice, indeed. "...flecked shades of gilded bronze, the Midas brush..." such a delicate illustration.
i really like this blog..
pnr status
Wonderful but heartbreaking poem!
The rhythm to this poem is marvellous.
Beautiful. It's scary, isn't it, the way species vanish. Haunting.
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