Spring 2015
MEDIATION AT THE WINDOW BY ANN CUTHBERT
(after Theodore Roethke)
Sunrise by Marie Lynam Fitzpatrick, Watercolour Study
1.
Across the glitter of winter grass come the blackbirds,
heads cocked, haematite eyes beaded for danger, hopping
towards the house where I watch behind warm windows.
On the bird table, a robin picks at mealworms
and sparrows twitter on stripped branches of whitebeam.
A rush of noise as a woodpigeon lifts off, heavy,
the blackbirds heckling now and skirmishing,
one male routing the others, head down, wings stiff-fanned sleeves,
driving them away from quartered apple, scattered sultanas,
stabbing at his prizes with vivid beak.
The wind gets up, rough as a terrier shaking a rat,
a morning wind, rough as a Monday wakening.
I wrap my hands around my coffee cup, stay watching.
The Linnet's Wings Poetry