Sudden snow hit our streets last night

To greet our waking words

And for me, the sudden thought:

"What about the birds?"

 

As I watched a lone black crow

(it might have been a rook)

Picking its patient way to go

Peck-pecking what it took

 

From sparse offerings on the street

Weaving its wandering path

Making sure it dodged the feet

And the few passing peoples' wrath.

 

It struck me then how we forget

Our avian fellow creatures

When weather turns and they are met

With its unforgiving features

 

That keep humanity snug at home

With other things to mind there;

Whereas our feathered friends must roam

The streets for what they find there.

 

In cold deserted snow-strewn places

Devoid of the usual discarded stuff

That folk decline to stuff in their faces

Yet somehow proves to be enough

 

For the birds that now seem rare

In the sky and on the ground

This is the time we should especially care

And keep them fed where found.......

And see them safe and sound!

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