Garden Ode 1

The two year olds chase the butterflies.  

They don’t tire in their pursuit.

They love to watch the birds or even planes cross vision’s landscape

Is it the same for all?  The fascination of flight? 

Imagine you’re a bird in flight, face to the wind 

That’s why they have a beak 

A bird’s head is much like the shape of a jet or a rocket or even a plane.  

Is that what we learnt from birds?   

To minimise the point of contact? 

Yet a beak is sharp and pointed for their foraging and feeding, is it not?

We envy their agility, their nimbleness, their speed 

And even children in their butterfly dance 

Laugh the self-deprecating laugh of the clumsy 

But the laughter is joyous too 

Reveling in the strength of their limbs 

The resistance of air as they force through it 

Striving to overcome their inelegance

Children have faith in their bodies

They almost believe they can fly, as many 

Do try...

The fickleness of birds alights here and then there

Hedonistic? Or is there purpose to their travels?

Is theirs a life of need 

like the millions of earthbound flesh who have no time for indulgence?  

Their days are work filled 

to gather or purchase enough food for succour for sustenance

for subsistence.

The other animals of our planet are like our children.  

A lot of them do have time on their hands 

(They're time unaware  

without a care)
To sit on a telephone wire 

to receive an exhilirating and expansive view of the world

in its proximity 

A bird's eye view

not only to spy possible prey in their sights 

Do they sit feeling the thrill 

of being able to balance on such a fine foothold?

Sing purely because 

it is joyous to do so

Then fly to a neighbouring tree for a sampling of afternoon delights?

Red berries to intoxicate 

and give full throat to those songs of joy and fraternity 

as they welcome their peers to the party 

and maybe have a jostle or two for the spoils.

Here we are 

stuck in the world of work 

of time keeping, of worry and guilt 

for the waste of hours

Spent in daydream 

of the play of children and animals.