Imposed night sittings, threats against
miscreants swinging from the Union Jack
or the Cenotaph to kneel painfully on stone
& then wipe all expression from your face,,
so that the viewer would read suppressed or inner pain
on the bonnet of a Jaguar green emerald
is a lawful you forming part of the Royal Convoy
HM Berridge of The Vale of Catmose
a flightless young magpie tumbles to the ground,
in Oakham, veils of rain shining purple acetate
& murdering songbirds, collapsing ecosystems,
alleged crimes of tearing out of the eyes & the anuses of lambs
that they even bear a spot of devil’s blood
under their tongues
& refused to mourn for Christ,
The crow family. Jackdaws & Magpies
share family ties. Carrion kin. Stitched.
Everyone knows the rhyme, or a version of it:
One magpie brings sorrow;
Two mirth; Three a wedding;
Four a birth; Five silver, Six gold;
& Seven the devil, himself alone!
