Cruel

awful scene

The devastation was total

 a macabre

pot pourri of 

her young

the lucky ones

didn't see it coming

couldn't have

mother stood 

at the roadside

Her keening

piercing my soul

the perpetrator

of the wickedness

still present

seemingly unperturbed

by the carnage

all around

I did not bid usual

good wishes 

to this murderer

whose onyx beak 

bore blood and 

broken shell 

clues to the crime 

Author's Note

I saw a magpie raid on a tiny birds nest in my tree. The nesting pair showed great courage in trying to fend off the much bigger predator but it was useless. The magpie raid devastated the nest that I was watching for weeks.

Reviews

[angelina neves]

really cruel...
a vivid well done description of the terrible case.

[Sami Khalil]

Very horrific and touching . You are a master in your poetic eye and pen. We can draw a lot of lessons from those birds. Thank you for sharing and tackling...:::))))

[Alisa Js]

Hello Tony,

WoW!!!

This one is heartbreakingly sad! And yet, the visuals are stunning in the mind's eye as this reader read through.

Wishing you well.

Alisa

[Tom Float]

Your syntax is spectacular. That final three lined stanza really drilled home not only the horrific nature of the event, but of violence itself. As easy to picture as though it were on a screen. Very, very well written poem.

[Kelly Scheppers]

I had a nesting of mourning doves right outside my bedroom window. The first nesting, both baby squabs took to flight two weeks after hatching. The second nesting, the two babies were days away from taking flight, when they were taken in the middle of the night by a predator. I have spent the past couple of months watching the vigilance and nurturing of these birds, my husband building a rooftop to protect them from the wind and rain, only to have them savagely killed. My heart breaks in reading this, Tony...thank you for your story!

[B]

I saw a dead cat on the road
run over by a car
for some reason some images remain
and they touch your soul

i liked your sense of expression here
brief yet profound

[Jimmy Yetts]

Savagery often offends the poet's soul.
Where we--who are also a vital part of Nature--get that sensitivity is a question leading to even more profound questions.
A stunning portrayal, Tony!

[Samuel Dickens]

You express well the shock and horror of the scene. Nature is often brutal and we know it, yet watching such events as this are still difficult. I'm sorry you lost the little pretty birds. Perhaps a cat will have magpie for supper.

[Beccy]

Even without your author's note; I understood this instantly and from the first line to last it cuts deep.

Mankind is cruel in a different way of course, Nature we can perhaps forgive.

Beccy.

[MsJewel]

Haunting words that seriously gave me goosebumps. You have an amazing talent. Outstanding writing. :) Julie