some birds just don't walk straight

some birds just don't walk straight

 

 

promises fly backwards like hummingbirds

hoarding the sweet nectar

leaving empty nests

abandoned because the rent was too high

the straw polls pecked at a change 

that never got off the ground,

 

the nests vacated

condemned

as are those who believed

chose

 

and now sharpen their beaks on hunger

the worm is turning backwards

but the wings don't work forwards

 

and the song remains a crooked tune

the cardinals have sinned

the robins pillaged the poorest sparrows

 

and the Eagle, the symbol of something

lives in his high-rise castle

spitting out worms

just because he can.

 

 

 

erin-cilberto

6/30/19

Reviews

[barleygirl]

A powerful satire upon the frivolities of the pecking order, unavoidable among humans. I'm afraid your fatalistic tone matches my own current jaded outlook on societies worldwide. There's something about your use of flying forward & backward, not graceful like a hummingbird, but having a busted transmission, this makes for a fresh unexpected burst of pondering in the reader's imagination (((HUGS))) Fondly, Margie

[jacob erin-cilberto]

thank you for your kind review, Margie.
j.

[Rana]

A poetic, pensive observation, reflecting over a string of encounters with different birds and deriving inference on bird behavior. There is some evil in nature, as in the lion that eats the deer, but then again if it doesn't it would die, also, the deer eats the plants. It's a cycle of evil. Maybe the cycle of life. Could it have been any other way? Maybe one day. Maybe in another world. The poem feels like a symbol of the moment this awakening (or re-awakening) happens where one sees (again) that it is not an all-good world like we had for a while begun to believe it was. Maybe because we ourselves shift between being the Eagle and the worm, eating and being eaten, right back and forth. This indeed is a very interesting piece of poetry. Profound!

[jacob erin-cilberto]

thank you for your astute words here, Rana,
j.

[Muskan]

Wowwww!

Title gives an expression of a fiction but when you read it, it's a spectacular piece of metaphor
And the last stanza is very much showcasing the say of power....

[jacob erin-cilberto]

thank you for your kind review, Muskan..
j.

[Robert Trakofler]

Bird society is for the birds Jacob! I think you just condensed several novels into a few succinct lines in this one dear sir! like it very clever good man very clever

[jacob erin-cilberto]

thank you for your encouraging review, Bb...
j.

[Daniela]

I love the vocabulary you use, you speak your words very articulately in your writing. This was a lovely read.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

thank you for your very kind words, Daniela,
j.

[Fairy Khan]

I love the last stanza. It shows the ugly face of power in our society. Such an eloquent expression of thoughts. Appreciated. :)

[jacob erin-cilberto]

thank you for your kind words, Fairy...
j.

[adichie]

This feels like a comforting blanket to be placed on the shoulders of a freezing cold refugee of the Promise Land. :):)

The opening stanza is my favourite, it just draws you in!!

Beautiful, and as haunting as the view from a high rise can be.

Deb :)

[jacob erin-cilberto]

thank you for your words, Deb,
j.

[adichie]

You’re welcome, Jacob!!! Your style is a help to me.

Deb :)

[Annette Pisano-Higley]

Applause for this j.! Important, masterfully a metaphoric, allegorical words brilliantly written. “The Birds” theme is reminiscent of Hitchcock’s great movie. Even birds (like humans), can only take so much before they explode or implode. “And now Cardinals sin, birds “sharpen their beaks on hunger” while deserting their brood and their condemned nests. This message is powerful. Here’s hoping the Eagle, viciously spitting out worms, is well on his way to a corrective and monumental reckoning.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

thank you for your insightful and kind words, Annette.
j.

[Chris Shaw]

Birds is a slang term for women over here Jacob, so my first thoughts on reading your title was for birds of the unfeathered kind indulging in too much vino! Maybe this is more to do with the behaviour of the many varieties of winged birds. I know that some of them are lacking where that is concerned. Thinking about the cuckoo here who takes over a nest and then chucks the eggs out making way for their own. And then the Robin who is aggressive to other birds and is a bit of a loner. Not much love there is there between species. Sort of reminds me of the human race. I may be way off the mark, but that's where you took me with this very interesting write.

Chris

[jacob erin-cilberto]

oh i was definitely using the birds as metaphor...you were spot on...but i did not know about them being a slang term for women...that is interesting to me.
thank you for your words, Chris.
j.

[Tinabells]

clap! clap! clap! Best poem thus far

[jacob erin-cilberto]

thank you, Tina,
j.