John Hegley

Inspired by winged ones of Monsier Georges Braque.

BRAQUE BIRDS

Some say his name, brack.
Others speak it, brark.
Anyway,
B-R-A-Q-U-E is how it is spelt
and how we have flown
with his painted birds.

With my door outstretched
there are others, welling up
and telling us to listen
and in my book of birdwatching,
words spell out each song.
And, there is more than one way, possible.

SOME SEA BIRDS

The skua is a pirate.
It goes hurrying and harrying
for what the gull is carrying. 
The skua is an opportunist pouncer,
savagingly scavenging a snatch.
The great skua — referred to as a bonxie or a boncer
has a whitish patch
in the otherwise dark brown plumage.

Elsewhere in the air above the spumage
with its characteristic tubular nostrils 
is a fulmar, from the family of petrels.

And then, there is the puffin.

John Hegley