A Feathered Mourner

Based on a true event

                                                                A FEATHERED MOURNER

An old man steps out in his garden

Rattles corn inside a tin

He's surrounded by pigeons

Attracted by the din

He scatters corn upon the ground

Heads bobbing as they eat

He has to be careful when he turns around

The;re all around his feet

But the old mans health is failing

Cancer is in his chest

Soon he's confined to bed

Growing weak, in need of rest

His son takes on his fathers roie

Feeds them every day

Until the illness wins it's fight

And he sadly passes away

The son continues to feed them

Until the tin is bare

He looks down and tells them

"You'll have to feed elsewhere"

The birds they still return

But in fewer numbers every day

Until at last it happens

No birds on rooftops stay

Two weeks later at the old mans home

The family all did meet

Awaiting the arrival of the hearse

To come into the street

A Grandson stood watching

When out the corner of his eye

Something brown and feathery

Happened to catch his eye

A single brown pigeon

Was walking up the path

He shouted for his father

To come and have a laugh

His father came to see what's up

And the bird he did see

It hopped onto the step

No signs that it would flee

It strolled into the lobby

As everyone watched on

No matter how hard they tried

He just would not be gone

It hung around for quite a while

Till the black convoy came into view

It flew out onto the lawn

As if that's what it had to do

It watched as the family

Left the house to join the cars

Waiting until they took their seats

In the vehicles behind Grandpa's

The grandson looked out the car

As they began to move

The pigeon had moved to the roadside

As if it's view it would improve

As the cars began to turn

To leave the street behind

The pigeon bowed it's head

As if respect was on it's mind

It then took off into the air

It's duty it had proudly done

A few seconds later all that could be seen

Was a black dot silhouetted in the sun 

Reviews

[Chris Shaw]

It never ceases to amaze me how the animal and bird kingdom connects with us humans. This is an endearing story George. Even more so because it is based on fact. Thank you for sharing with us, your readers. Good to see you posting again.


Chris

[George David Hope]

Thanks Christine for your kind words and glad you liked it. Doing a lot of extra hours at work so haven't been able to post or come up with anything new

[Richard M]

I love stories based that are real and this is so wonderful. Great work in rhyming in telling a real story.

[George David Hope]

Thanks for your kind words and glad you enjoyed the read. Everyone in the street was a bit happy when he died because there must have been over 100 pigeons on the roof every night and he lived in a group of 4 houses so everyone got the noise of them echoing on the roof. It was just strange that when we stopped feeding them and they all left (they've never returned) that on the day of the funeral the brown one arrived and was so tame and even came into the house....could it have been my grand father we can only but guess

[Richard M]

Very strange and mysterious! I'm sure it was your grandfather, and the fact that they just stopped coming. Very mysterious. Thanks for the sharing George

[Jade]

This is quite a poem, i really enjoyed this. lots of imagery. very nicely written

[George David Hope]

Thank you for your kind words and glad you liked it...was struggling for something to write about then this came to mind. Based on when my grandfather died and the event's afterwards