One for sorrow
seeks another,
for whose company
longing to borrow.

A fluff of feathers
Black and white,
Hide the scrawny scavenger
Whose "Rick, Rick, Rick!"
Identify some place of death,
This careful bandit's visiting.

He leaves outright robbery
To his cousin jay,
And flits,
One disaster to the next,
To see how he may capitalize.

Dead carrion, his usual fodder...
Yet one subzero winter day
I saw a magpie perched
Upon a shivering cow
Belly deep in snow, and
Chilled in minus 30 air,
Peck-scratching through a healing scab
And pulling living flesh away.

A brilliant blaze high in the sky
banishing the shy clouds away
revealing the purest of hues, a bright blue.

A single magpie flies nearby
I wish it didn't stay
as one for sorrow is very true

I suspected the sky to suddenly cry
for nature to obey, ruining my day
receiving the misery due

Instead the sun refused to comply
the single magpie it did disobey
And a second magpie came, as if on cue

With two magpie it did imply
what a joy will be today
Two are rarely a rue

To quick was I to jump to the negative
presuming the worst, my fatal imperative

Because when they go to fly
My happiness won't die

I don't need to anchor my well being on what I see
Cause all I need to enjoy life is me

I watch the two magpies now with amusement
soaking in this wondrous moment

One magpie on my balcony
makes me finally begin to feel
I am in the need of company from
Either the only thing that is real
Benign life being alone aloof or
To morn a dark separate from night in my sleep it took away from my eyes
All of my best years with a symphony
Of skeletal men set on high
Stabbing and singing me
These death lullabies
Howling my bones away
Hollow as child's play
One magpie Singing me to sleep

And the songbird gives me hope
When sleep offers no home
Waking up hours before the end of the day