Tis Funny... (inspired by Hawkman's poem "Serenade")
Tis funny. I live in the country now and lament the loss
of the gull's mournful song, of pipers and curlew;
Leaving only memories of the Sound and Bay and Sea;
places where I grew up as a lad, where I often long to return
Yet, at home in Garden Valley, we have the cheery quail's
voice to lift one's spirit;
And the ever present red-tailed hawk and red-winged
blackbirds with their ubiquitous cry and song
Canadian geese grace our hills and ponds year-round with
their regal trumpeting fanfares;
Robins, jays, sparrows, finches, and bluebirds aplenty add
their songs to the daytime symphony
We used to have peacocks transplanted from who-knows-
where on our family's lands;
Now they're found plaguing the church grounds where I worship,
with their irreverent offerings and strident haranguing chants
I would add the peripatetic mute turkey troops thrown into the mix;
I've never heard their gabblings - but certainly, they must!;
And hummingbirds with their frenetic whirrs! and chitter!;
And often a mourning dove's soft coo
The occasional sombre hoot of owls echoes through our little
valleys' stillest nights;
And in the wee-est hours before the dawn does peep, from a
solitary bird I do not know, a most melodic song is sung
Of magpies down in the flatland environs where I often visit
away from these happy hills, again, I must lament;
They've been decimated by the West Nile Virus - to the
delight of bickering murders of crows
Ta ! (short for tarradiddle),
tailor STATELY
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