Poetry – Rudrapriya Sen

The Meeting of Birds

The sky was grey, cold ,and dark
It couldn’t be only a rainy day’s mark.
There were more birds than they had ever seen,
Nobody knew for so long, where they had been .
The crow with its beady eyes,the sparrows with its jumpy legs
The meeting of birds,a council, held on branches as well as on the pegs.

**

“So, shall we begin?” asked the sunbird with a hum .
The sleepy heron remarked sadly, “Dunno, many are yet to come.”
Miss sparrow on the tree objected highly,
“We can’t just sit and sigh!” she said drily.
“Oh! do you have a plan then ?” the old owl hooted.
“Nope!” the sparrow said , while eating pulses, earlier looted.
The Raven said wisely, “Let’s sit down and think.”
But all the others did was chirp and blink.

**

Animals had taken a note of this,
Drowned in suspicion, they wouldn’t want to miss .
The nosy squirrel asked what that was about?
But the birds never answered, or hoot or shout .
“Oi Mateys , what are yeh up to, can I khow?” It asked tumbling over a twig on which it could barely stand !
“Nothing nosy ” screeched the birds,”Nothing you will understand” .

**

The screeches got louder , thousands were screaming…
Enough to wake up anybody while dreaming!
Nobody except the birds knew what the meeting was about . None at all !
The birds quickly departed then, they could sense a rainfall .