The Cuckoos’s Call

This charming poem was written by Martin Silvester about the life of birds.  

The Cuckoos’s Call

Today I heard a cuckoo’s call, echoing through the trees,
It made me pause from my gardening and I just rested on my knee’s,
I took a look around me, there were blue tits on the nuts,
And a blackbird gave a vibrant call, very shrill..no ifs and buts.

So I knelt there like a statue, then I heard a robin speak,
It was looking for its dinner, but the worms played hide and seek.
All the birds were busy, their songs were drifting on the breeze,
And I wondered what they thought of me, a human, on his knees.

What a sense of freedom, birds must feel, as off they fly,
No busy roads and traffic jams, up there in the sky.
No need to book a table, in the garden restaurant,
Just spread your wings and fly around, till you find the one you want.

They don’t have to book a room, for when the sun has gone to bed,
A favourite twig or branch will do, to rest their weary head.
No standing in a supermarket, queuing up to pay the bill,
No sitting in a waiting room, for a prescription or a pill.

No planning regulations, when they want to build a nest,
Just find a place the cats can’t reach, thick hedges are the best.
No need to wait for deliveries, of materials for their home,
Dried grass and moss are all around, where ever they may roam.

Birds don’t have to worry, about what to wear, or what they’ve got,
And birds don’t have to worry, about their shrinking pension pot.
In fact birds don’t have to worry, about very much at all,
Just flying round and finding food and singing out their call.

I couldn’t help admiring them, as I knelt there on the turf,
My being born a human, was just an accident of birth.
If I get the chance to be born again, I might just have a word,
I’ll ask if I, can come back to earth, the next time…as a bird.

© Martin Silvester 24/4/15

You may also be interested in reading his first book of poems called Last Apple on The Tree