Asimov's SF, September 2010 by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2011-07-10T14:01:07+00:00

Poetry: EGG PROTECTION by Ruth Berman

* * * *

* * * *

For about two weeks, two robins

Kept yelling at me

Every time I appeared outside the door

In (apparently) a cloud

Of flames and brimstone

Visible to birdseyes,

To grab the paper or the mail.

And they’d explode

Diving out of the rowan

One to the pinebush by the front step

And one to the gable on the other side

To scream their wrath,

Change places with an angry flutter

And scream some more,

Bits of twig or greenery in their beaks.

—

Must’ve been a nest under construction

(In the rowan?)

But I never managed to spot it

Much less attack it.

Still, I might’ve—

Best to frighten off the monster first.

—

One day they weren’t there anymore—

Off somewhere (in the rowan?)

Taking turns at sitting on the eggs.

—

Like Alice, I have eaten eggs, certainly,

But I don’t want theirs.

Birds consider only the first bit.

They don’t take a human’s word for the rest.

—

If the bluejays come and eat their eggs

And drop the half-shells on the lawn,

I’ll fill them with wax

And stop the open ends up

With gold buttons

And put them on chains for necklaces.

—

The robins probably suspected as much.

—

“Serpent!” said Alice’s bird,

“Serpent, I say!”

Copyright (c) 2010 Ruth Berman

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