Bird Botching
Are all drongos assholes?
the swifts and swallows are too swift for me to follow
so i turn to something more stoic
kingfishers feel lonely to me,
perhaps some of them should have been blue-throated, not white
shiva shiva!
rarely to be spotted with a queenfisher
mostly flying solo but not as low as lapwings go
they surprised me with how quickly they gained altitude
hovering low like a wedding drone
are drongos assholes?
behaviourally, they seem fishy
call them wrong-os i say
they surprised me with how quickly they gained attitude
i once saw this ‘kotwal’ shoo sanguine bulbuls off their perch
bulbuls don’t strike me as a species that vents
but i am sure they were red inside
as long as we are on black birds that lack tact
how does the caramel-winged, red-eyed, greater coucal even qualify as a bird?
this willy nilly fur-tado only shies away
lest it be the only one that doesn’t steal nests
how can crows and crow pheasants not be related?
i can venture a guess
ever seen a crow under stress?
i once watched one dig its beak madly into a raintree
be a little more pleasant
like your non-cousin pheasant!
enough of ebonies that give me worries
i think i carry man’s white bird-en
hard to find fault with them
#noegrets
instead, i stare at the underwings of rock pigeons
sometimes fascinated, often afraid
once they dropped a nitro boost i did not need
in traffic worse than road rash
i refuse my rider friend’s request to berate them
i shall never call anyone ‘land kabootar’
still, i wonder
what underworld dealings unfold
with rock pigeons underneath concrete flyovers
the overlords are the not-so-black kites
i map their flight trajectories
not only to admire the way they compose the skies
but because one once talon-ed my forehead
without rhyme or season
speaking of birds that sound like horror movie backgrounds:
peacocks.
nature never gives you everything
only a competitive edge
if it gives you size, vision or makes you aesthetic
it makes sure you sound pathetic
the tiny ones sound sweet
even though most don’t seem to know how to eat
a singapore cherry without making a meal
bring me the folks who name these creatures and critters
the sunbird shares little with the sun
and when I saw a cormorant it looked at me and flexed its wings
i aint little anything, you punk!
never mock a bird that ends with a rant
good place to end mine.
Written by Sada Hasna Manto.