A day's mourning
One of these mornings, while walking in a public park close to where I live, I came across a dead bird. A small creature it was, lying on the road under some trees.
The scene bothered me quite a bit. As I felt a pang of sadness in my heart, my first instinct was to avert my eyes and walk away as quickly as I could. I did not want to sit with the gloomy feeling the event had stirred in me.
However, a little voice within also told me I needed to find acceptance in that moment, to take it as part of the endless cycle we call nature, instead of turning a blind eye to avoid all feeling. I needed to honour life by honouring that moment as well.
So I wrote a small poem about it.
Do you see
Lying silent by a tree
In the shaded trail that leads
To the top of the city park
Do you see
The road there
Cluttered with debris
A body tired of flight
A bird buried in ants
At rest in an odd place
Must we be
Unmoved by the end
And its mystery
For fear of a day’s mourning
When feathers on concrete will be
Sustenance for the colony
At work in the early morning
