By Stanley McNail
"Sweet mercy is nobility's true badge" Shakespeare
In memory of pigeons
Wantonly killed by grain
Poison in the downtown
Area of the City of St Francis
Called "rats of the skies"
Their flocks have grown thin
Dodging the city's commotion
And din,
Starving for breadcrumbs
Too sparingly tossed,
Braving the winds and
The bone chilling frost.
Who will remember the
Flash of their wing,
Iridescent in sunlight
With earth-tones of spring,
And who will there be
To offer their bread
To little gray beggars
Now crumpled and dead?
Refuge on rooftops
They never have found
From 2 footed predators
Roaming the ground,
Despoilers of nature,
Of heaven and earth
Betrayers of life
And the source of all birth.
May Someone Invisible
Scatter warm bread
For innocent beggars
And lovingly spread
The best of fresh grains
For their trusting bills,
And sparkling pure water
From springs of the hills,
With freedom forever
To circle and soar
For little gray pigeons
Beggars no more.
(Stanley McNail has left his body)
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