artwork: ralph murre
STARLINGS
by John Flynn
You have to come
to an accommodation
with the starlings.
There are so many of them.
They take over a yard
like convicts too long confined,
and are without grace.
Purposeful, persistent.
Not too pushy. But
enough to get by.
In wintertime
on the coldest days
they hunch on the top
of chimneys, beaks to
the feathery smoke,
to stay warm.
They accommodate us
and survive by our smoke.
They survive by our smoke.
They persist.
Not with starlings
is black white
or lies the truth.
They are the truth,
the starlings.
Looked down upon,
derided for their gaucherie.
Less is less.
More is more.
Accommodate.
Persist.
~ first published in Minneapolis
Observer Quarterly
