The annual avian ****
storm-troopers and
Luftwaffe have attacked
allied fortresses
of our smaller
fine
feathered friends --

    Chickadees
       Finches
            &
       Wrens --

and have taken
many of their strongholds
this spring here in the
Far North pillaging
needed and perhaps
unneeded sustenance
from our allies
storehouses leaving
nothing in their wake
but an avian version
of empty nest syndrome.

    These black-clad
     Heckle & Jeckle
    Grackle Gestapo
with their click click
       machine gun
   sputtering sounds

think we don't notice their
clever tricks as they
nonchalantly hop
downward from branch
to branch and shuffle
side-ways on our fence
whistling as they move
one way but their
manipulating gaze at
food supplies plans
another.

But our smaller brave
fine feathered friends
hold their ground to
fight the good fight of
faith propagating
their species as the
human species also
struggles with and
against the odds of
blind and partially
blind instinct.

Warfighter, late in years, finally vanquished.
Arm drop, sword clang, grateful to be finished.

Breached fortress,
Gate ajar, the opaque clears.
He raises his hands up to the sky,
Cries,
Turned heart.
‘Why only now did you intervene?’
He implores.

‘Can’t you see that it was me you were fighting all along?’
Says The River unseen.

As I went on in life
I started building havens
First out of sticks
But as time went by those sticks turned to stones
Walls of doubt and fear began to appear and close in around me
The stones turned to iron bars
And the rising walls trapped me in
Inside my head
Inside my own prison
The more I fought the stronger the barricade became
Then you came to me
My knight in shining armor
My king and my Friend
The love you had for me burned down the doubt and tore away the fear
Until I was a child holding up my arms to my Father for his strong embrace
You carried me home and I was never again alone with my fear