Saturday 17 February 2018

Outsider


Look-see, a dead bird prostrate on the grass,
it’s a chick; grey, pink, her skin almost translucent. 
Life didn’t last long, just fleeting, a featherless life.  
She’s gone;  cats had her teeth in her maybe. 
Possibly not – no discernible suffering… 
Maybe she just spilled out of the nest
or maybe she just didn’t belong.

Anna :o]

For Hedge's 55.

Also shared with the good folk at Poets United.  Cheers for hosting Mary.

Image:  Courtesy of  Wikimedia Commons 
Author:  Tony Wills:   

17 comments:

brudberg said...

Oh... nature can be so cruel. Maybe just a misfit in the world of birds... the way you describe his skin is so sad.

hedgewitch said...

Each life a jewel, a translucent pearl, only so much briefer, softer...this is full of the sorrow of the compassionate heart, one that bleeds easily, yet also sees things as part of a greater whole, full of maybes..exquisite, perfect in its smallness, like the gone bird. Thank you for adding this to the 55's this week, Anna.

Sherry Blue Sky said...

Oh poor bird baby! Fell out of the nest too soon.

Donna@LivingFromHappiness said...

I always find it hard to deal with death in nature and it is such a natural thing...happening all the time...

grapeling said...

soon, the ants. all of us will fall from the tree, some day ~

Colleen Looseleaf said...

A featherless life is so tragic. But all part of nature's cycle, I suppose.

ZQ said...

Yikes... interesting topic...I read it as a great metaphor.
ZQ

kaykuala said...

Attrition in the animal world can be quite disastrous for the weak and helpless!

Hank

Mary said...

Sad really. Whenever I see a dead animal, I have a pause. Today I saw a deer covered with snow. Didn't make it across the street. Always contemplate why. Like you did. In your poem.

Truedessa said...

I wonder what happened to the baby bird, did she fall out of the nest? So sad to think she didn't belong.

Wendy Bourke said...

A thoughtful impactful piece. It is so true: life can go horribly wrong - even end. And so often, we are left to wonder and wonder and never really feel as though we've got it clear in our mind ... how this came to be.

annell4 said...

As there is always "life," there is also "death." It is important that we learn from nature, everything that lives dies...and some other things die, too. Even though we are left with questions, acceptance is the key. No longer surprised by the ways of life and death. There are words from a poem, I always say, when I see death, "released, whole and unharmed, from the cage that held it bound."

Magical Mystical Teacher said...

At least someone noticed and recorded the unexpected death.

M. A. S. said...

And the world moves on. I like the matter-of-fact tone in your words. It really makes it work.

Jenny Woolf said...

Always such a sad sight. I guess that is the way of nature. Lovely poem, not too sentimental yet it is compassionate.

dsnake1 said...

sad, but that's the cycle of nature.
"maybe she just didn’t belong." , that's such a strong line.

Rosemary Nissen-Wade said...

Sad speculations – then the last line takes it somewhere much further.