The exclamation mark at the end of line 1 in the second stanza acts as a full stop so that the second line - "A hardy blip" refers not to the bird's tail but the bird itself.
Amongst my other bird poems is one om the long-tailed tit written in April 2015 and posted here on 31 October 2019.
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Oh wagtail, where have you been?
Through summer’s hale
You’re nowhere to be seen,
(up country, feeding
When the flies and mites are breeding).
Now, in winter’s dank and gale
You’re back, the sea’s lip being
To you agreeing,
Mild if wet; and quick zig-zeeing
On prom or beach, advancing, fleeing,
With “chip-chirp-chip,”
Whilst the waves rail,
You pan for food, stopping to prod and sip.
That uncease tail – tap, tap!
A hardy blip –
Black-bibbed, white-tuckered, slap
And thrown by the wind’s whipping,
Dodging and flipping
With whirry legs in Triton’s grip:
To next year’s seeking
For mates, beak-to-cheeking,
Breeding and egging, and scarce grits eking,
Will you survive through winter’s screaking?
For all that’s to do,
Like a callous quip,
Is go on, go on, till flesh and bone unwoo.
====================
© December 2024
----------------
Oh wagtail, where have you been?
Through summer’s hale
You’re nowhere to be seen,
(up country, feeding
When the flies and mites are breeding).
Now, in winter’s dank and gale
You’re back, the sea’s lip being
To you agreeing,
Mild if wet; and quick zig-zeeing
On prom or beach, advancing, fleeing,
With “chip-chirp-chip,”
Whilst the waves rail,
You pan for food, stopping to prod and sip.
That uncease tail – tap, tap!
A hardy blip –
Black-bibbed, white-tuckered, slap
And thrown by the wind’s whipping,
Dodging and flipping
With whirry legs in Triton’s grip:
To next year’s seeking
For mates, beak-to-cheeking,
Breeding and egging, and scarce grits eking,
Will you survive through winter’s screaking?
For all that’s to do,
Like a callous quip,
Is go on, go on, till flesh and bone unwoo.
====================
© December 2024
