A free verse poem about pigeons in my backyard. |
I have fed birds in my backyard for years. Any bird that’s hungry is welcome to stop by for a meal, and my yard is visited regularly by cardinals, blue jays, robins, thrashers, wrens, doves (ring-necked and mourning), woodpeckers, assorted blackbirds, hordes of sparrows, with rare finches just migrating through. I even have hummingbirds each summer. My reward is a yard full of activity and beautifully colored birds to watch. It’s a fair trade – food for entertainment. In recent years my neighborhood has changed into shopping centers where cotton fields were…concrete replacing green fields. With the acres of cement has come the prototypical city bird. Yep, the nasty, ugly pigeon that infests downtowns across America, commonly regarded as an undesirable nuisance. At first, one showed up, then a few more, and now a whole flock comes at a time. I regretted their coming at first. Why did pigeons have to invade my backyard? It’s been a few months now, and I’ve started to enjoy their presence more. Pigeons display an assortment of colorings, from tan and white to light gray, to deep, dark black, and many have fluorescent neck feathers that shine in the bright sunlight. And pigeons perform! Other birds fly or maybe hop across the lawn. Pigeons leisurely stroll as if on a walk through the park on a Sunday outing of olden times. Why fly when you can get to the next feeder by walking? As ground feeders, they are quite comfortable keeping their big bodies grounded. Today I watched a lusty male pigeon, his chest puffed up and his head bobbing, marching after a coy female who was giving him a cold shoulder. They paraded in tandem all over the yard, him strutting his heart out to please her, but to no avail. Off she flew, leaving him to his misery. Like any other rejected male, he took it hard…until another likely female caught his attention. Then his strutting parade began anew. There must be a valuable life lesson in here somewhere. Please check out my ten books: http://www.amazon.com/Jr.-Harry-E.-Gilleland/e/B004SVLY02/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0 |