Poems for Advent 16

Tiny Wings

An argument of sparrows in the roof

roosting beneath the thin brief shelter from

freezing stars, adds to an orchestra's hum

of other's scratching in the floor of chaff.

The sharp sawing of a blind cricket's rough

high song. Mice find safe nesting in the warm

earth. White ants nibble the fabric of the room.

Worm, flea, roach and slater share spoils of

scrap and leavings. Tiny insects swarm and sting,

But for a passing respite in their tough

universe of sound - the song's the same.

The short cycle of all small living things:

but when the child lying in the cattle trough

whimpers to the tune - a fragile silence reigns.

Jeff Guess