Karima Brooke
You’re still under age, a juvenile,
‘returned’ to Extremadura, a home
you never knew, far from Chilterns’ motorways
or wildest, wet and windy Wales.
Negative for avian influenza,
your DNA’s entered in a database,
a tag – not electronic – put on your leg,
voice recorded for research purposes
The plan:
come February, you get a mate,
dancing and whirling in courtship ritual,
the international language of desire.
Then, find a nest, maybe in evergreen oak.
You don’t build from scratch, that’s not your forte –
anyone’s abandoned structure will do.
Pad it out with bark, leaves, wool, twigs.
You are the original shantytown bird.
Decorating the nursery, that’s where
you excel: flamenco dancer’s hair clip;
thong cast aside in hasty human pairing –
your taste for underwear is notorious.
And, pièce-de-résistance, a cuddly toy
dropped by tourist child from speeding car,
with paper from an Olá ice lolly.
Now you feel at home, deported Red Kite!
From Wikimedia Commons, Photo by Charles J Sharp
| Previous Article | Next Article |
Back to September 2022 Newsletter Main Page
Forty-Three Newsletter • Number 521 • September 2022
Oxford Friends Meeting
43 St Giles, Oxford OX1 3LW
Copyright 2022, Oxford Quakers