Compass

One for sorrow sit with me

on sinister / passenger roadside
twisted, vertically-waved
dull, crash-barrier

for traffic-jam company
at the four-roads roundabout

royal-blue shortie-shawled
wings of unerring purpose
flash distraction while

puritan pied-honesty -
bleached milk sides
and black-backed hoodie -

stands out beyond the coloured world.

We look into a riven treasury -
you, so hard-beaked and eager for the reaving,
this stilled giant, listening for the grieving,

though, yes, ready to pluck
a treasure, now, as avidly as you,

capture yourself,
with this swift pin
of interchange:

peer into one another's worlds;
flap up, flash blue, veer off -

semicircle, drive on.

........................

'One for sorrow, / Two for joy, /Three for a girl, /Four for a boy, /Five for silver, / Six for gold, / Seven for a secret, / Never to be told.'

This is one popular version of the magpie nursery rhyme - all versions of which begin: 'One for sorrow'.