A Small Boy Chasing Pigeons

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He was slight, with glasses, this boy who

Chased birds across the Embankment's

Cracked and ill-set flagstones,

Beside the muddy chug of the river.

They were pigeons, fussing around the

Crumbs and scrag ends of lunches,

Food that fuelled awe-struck tourists

On whistle-stop tours and workers

Seeking refuge from sterile offices:

A brief solitude by the water's edge.


He wore a child's cruelty in his eyes,

Born of the discovery of control,

Manifest in his taunts and shouts,

And they panicked as he charged,

Flapping when he stamped and kicked,

Leading me to wonder in that moment:

If he should fall and keen-aimed claw

Should hook cruel mote from eye,

Might blindness yet beget a wonder

Clearly lost to his young years?



May 5th 2015

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