From the hedgerow
a pheasant bursts –
copper neck, carnival tail,
a prince in threadbare velvet,
flouncing through a court
no one attended.
a pheasant bursts –
copper neck, carnival tail,
a prince in threadbare velvet,
flouncing through a court
no one attended.
Its rusty cry
jerks the wheel,
a herald of chaos.
The villager cousin
of the royal peacock,
gaudy with borrowed grandeur,
ignorant of roads,
blissfully sovereign in the meadow.
It lifts –
awkward, brilliant,
a fluttering coronation,
its crown a flash of feathers
against the sky,
already scheming
another triumph –
while the birds bow politely, unbothered.