Lingering shadows still darken the windows
As the waking world puts on its clothes
Drifting out of a dream
My expectant ear follows the seam
Of a string of notes stitched into the dawn
Like beads of dew on a fresh green lawn
Echoes on the courtyard walls
The residents yawn
Rising sound
And your song rings round
Now high , now low, pining
As it flies and falls.
Perched out of sight
You are seldom seen
Before we hear your strain
But we are compelled mid stirring plight
To wait for the refrain
The rain
Early as the dawn broke
It came
And muted your cascading trills
As it hushed and rattled at the pane
Every chip and chirrup filled
The gutter and the gushing drain
Like water you let your music spill
Until it joined the stream again.
Then quiet ensues
The deluge past
No more to us assail
As day begins we hear the last
Of rain and bird and sweet reveille.
Joe Morriss
21st June 2020
