Notebook

We crumbled bread on the lawn
each day, seduced them with breakfast
and waited. Hushed. We coddled silence
until the first beat of wing
waxed black in our eyes.

I remember the dry mouth
fixed open, the sweaty hands
and nausea. Panic. Sometimes a rustle
created a fallen circle
of whisked feathers.

They returned to the garden
in tame, flirting groups
all ours. Jinxed. Air rifles cutting leaves
we shot them, one by one
into the notebook:

Blackbird – common European thrush, Turdus merula .
Sparrow – weaver bird of the genus Passer .
Starling – prolific passerine songbird, Sturnus vulgaris . Thrush – troubadour of the subfamily Turdinae .

All the exotics escaped.