A magpie robin dressed in black tie
conducts the morning music with his beak.
With the perking of his tail
the sun is released from its dark net.
The robin picks up an insect
from the morning's choice of breakfast.
Flying back to the branch
he gulps it
to the tune of its struggling wings.
Soon children and horns
school bells and dogs
join issue with the silence
of morning butterflies.
The robin sits on the branch
imitating sounds of other bird
with the honesty of his music.
But all his pirated songs
cannot say what he wants to.
The magpie robin wants to be a child
to go without a satchel to school
to sing multiplication tables
to crawl under a desk and then
climb the tree where he now sits.
Evening creeps out of its hole
as shadows blot out the school
and the faces of children.
The magpie robin sits
with his pert tail
lowered now to half-mast.
With an angry nod of his beak
the robin sweeps the waiting sun down
under the carpet of darkness.
