Two Sparrows

The rhyme and stress scheme is obvious enough except it may be useful to point out that the fourth line in each stanza is trochaic and the third lines of the first and sixth (last) stanzas rhyme as do the third lines of the second and fourth stanzas and those of the third and fifth stanzas.

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One cold March day
Two sparrows – he and she –
Hop-crept from a privet’s
Dusty roots and stared at me.
I stayed my way.

Their bright frank eyes,

His bib and dark-grey crown,
Emboldened the flat morning;
She, though plumaged all in brown,
Chirped like shook keys.

And what a sound!

Shouting-loud and blatant
Her catcalls dwarfed her body;
Blithely, though, and self-important
She flung them round.

They hopped upon

A tub of daffodils,
Quite unafraid, and fixing
Me with disputatious bills
Complaint begun.        

Life had no sense;        

Sodden, they lived to breed
And feed, then in the shoddy        
Open air they died; what need
Intelligence?

They had their say

That day, hungry and hoar;
All’s said, the wise man covets   
Food; in which shift who knew more –
I or they?

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© July 2013