Rancid Pigeon Orchestra

Rancid pigeon orchestra,

with woodwind cooing so sweetly,
making Bradford surrender
to this ennui so meekly.

I'd throw my hands into the air
but I can't bring myself to care.

Oh! Currant-eyed,
                              blister-beaked ratbirds!
Patrolling outside Greggs
on sickeningly thin
matchstick legs.

Play me a choon
of impending doom:
sing of how the day
of King Grey Squirrel
is horribly close at hand,
when the rank and file
and Jeremy Kyle
will dance
a rotting pigeon sarabande.*

B.R. 15/10/2017

 

 

* Sarabande: "A dance and song so loose in its words and so ugly in its motions that it is enough to excite bad emotions in even very decent people."

(Juan de Mariana in Tratato contra los juegos públicos (Treatise Against Public Amusements, 1609))