December 22nd

an ugly red smear

two wary shadows unfurl

spill black in the air

Two crows skulking over crushed roadkill, staking each other out, floating at each other in a non-violent contest. The sky was grey, the rain was falling. I didn’t get to see who won, who broke first. I drove on. Little dramas of nature are all around us. We (sometimes) only get a tiny window into them, it allows us to apply our own comprehension and fiction. It might have had nothing to do with what I’ve written of course, but it just goes to show, what does “truth” actually mean? I guess historians ask themselves this question, or I hope they do. I wont debate it, as I’m not clever enough to philosophise!

May 21st

Black eyes examine

the gasping rabbit body

sweet hot red broken

I had to wake up at 4.30 to get out of the house at 5.30am. On my drive to the train station I saw a crow who’d just swooped down to test the corpse of rabbit roadkill. It must’ve been fresh, the crow looked pensive as if any minute many more birds would descend and take it away. That’s all I saw, I drove on.

The train station was cold, I had a jacket on. I was happy to get into the warmth. As the train hurtled northwards, I noticed the dull grey of morning give way to blazing sunshine. Summer had arrived.

Timid dawn lumbers

the mists shimmer burn away

summer’s love blazes

Two Haiku’s today, but my first of the year which cites summer.

January 6th

 

Roadkill, Two for joy,

Dragging heavy carrion,

Magpies pecking flesh

 

Driving to Woburn Sands today, saw a couple of Magpies going at an indistinguishable squished animal on the road. They did seem to try to drag it out of the way of my oncoming car before giving up and flapping away. I’m sure they were right back onto it as soon as I past them.

They get a bad press, but I love all crows, suspicious, inquisitive and intelligent creatures that they are.

(image courtesy of RSPB website)