A Wintery Bird Refrain

A Wintery Bird Refrain

Snow was a’snowing
Wind was a’blowing
And then it started to rain

Ground went to glazing
Then went to crazing
Now it’s all ridge and vein

Crows are all cawing
Gulls are all soughing
Then down to the ground they all fly

Slippery-slick sliding
Skate-like ice-riding
Then, quickly, back up in the sky

* * *
Wires cold-humming
Birds all are coming
Sitting now all are aligned

Both gulls and crows
Are seated in rows
Ice-cold and icy-resigned

Blacks first then whites
In darks first then lights
All down the length of the wires

Dashes first and then dots
Beaded neatly in slots
Weathered and wore down old fliers

* * *
Sparring always for space
Most any old place
Here, up on top of this hill

Nesting snuggly in firs
Just hidden snow-blurs
Unseen and ghostly ~ until

Winter ever-cold numbing
Forces all in out-coming
Taking risks in facing the ice

Posed like pictures on posts
Don’t mistake them for hosts
They are ever, oh ever, not-nice

* * *
My warm window seats
Offers me these chill treats
A regular all day-long showing

Watching clown-like bird spats
Over suspicioned tats*
Bird-crying echoed in ice-wind blowing

Filling up the air-spaces
As they argue their cases
Soaring and shrilling and telling

There’s nothing much like
Sudden soaring kill-spike
To threaten a foe with a felling

* * *
When Mother Earth warms
And Spring comes and performs
They’ll all be alive and around

Their most favorite of spaces
Earth-bound or high-places
Is the claiming of rooftop or ground

Ever wheeling and dealing
Sometimes outright stealing
They’ll be flying and strutting about

While with windows cracked wide
Their cries floating inside
My self? I’ve got up and gone out!