We know
what’s best
Make the right decisions
Know the right culture
Have the right religion
Use the right words
No one else is as good as we are
It’s all black and white
Except for all that grey,
and all those other
rights.
poem-narrow March 27, 2018
Read and understand,
my children.
The world is not as narrow
as your mind.
If you live a life,
mired in the same mud,
you will never know the
glories of a mountain peak,
power of ocean depths.
Read and understand,
my children.
What you have seen
is not all there is.
What you have felt
is not all there is to feel.
See and understand,
my children.
There is more.
So much more.
Than what you know.
Open your eyes,
to the world
my children.
See and understand.
poem- flash and substance among sparrows and peacocks August 5, 2013
The sparrows are insulted
by the peacock’s brilliant tail,
Yet a peacock can not change itself
and sparrows are just dull.
Sparrows sing a gentle song
Peacocks bray loudly when they call
If sparrows are affronted, t’is
not the peacocks’ fault at all.
So if sparrows are insulted
they’ll find their own dull space
while peacocks enjoy themselves
with other bright, loud mates!
.
Sparrows are insulted by
the crows’ great intellect
When problems need resolving
sparrows just don’t get it.
While sparrows stew in vapid pools
the crows make out a plan;
they analyse, they study,
they get in that garbage can!
Sure sparrows will gang up
and drive a crow away
but the crow will just think harder
and devour them the next day.
.
Those sparrows are a feisty lot
though they lack imagination.
Peacocks and crows are the impressive
ornithological creations!
.
.
My father-in-law, a former biology professor and an award winning naturalist, kept a sparrow trap in his farm yard when he retired from U of C. He considered sparrows an over populace species that stole the nesting boxes of the desirable more endangered species that he was trying to encourage- i.e. Purple martins, Western blue birds, Goldfinches, and the like. I often wondered what the poor, dull little birds thought as they hopped around in the trap (which was a good size- about 5′ cube) waiting to be gassed. (Humane deaths, all). I often wondered what they thought of the more ‘exotic’ species that were able to explore his yard with impunity on the other side of their sparrow concentration camp. What would they have made of the peacocks our friends keep, do you think? The crows would come by the trap and try to figure out how to get in and have some sparrow dinner, but the opening was too small. I’m sure the sparrows felt safe, but they were still the ones who were gassed in the end! (Poor sweet little birds)
Shawn L. Bird 