Tag: owl

What Did the Owl See?

by M.G. Warenycia

“What did the owl see

Painted blue by a gibbous moon

That made her cease her nocturne tune

As she perched in the ancient maple tree?

*

I would tell you, if I had been

By the clayey shore of that shallow stream

Where the swarming salmon slither and gleam;

Were I walking past, why, I’d sure have seen.

*

What eldritch sight did draw her eye?

A shadow loping across the moor,

Hounding upon a human spoor?

A guess, that’s all, since you asked me why.

What shocked the she-owl’s tender ear?

It would clear, too, your face of mirth—

The crunch of sharp-edged steel in gritty earth

Would taint your sleep with buried fear.

*

And who did the owl see

‘Mid the mad and mazy suburban wood,

Shrouded beneath a sombre hood?

If know you must, then come with me…”

***

Canal-Side

Behind the wide rock-bastioned strand,

Where inky waves on moon-white sand

Beat out their timeless harmony,

The owl’s flight

In dead of night

A pearl inlaid on ebony;

‘Mid the canebrake leaves, pricked as thistles,

Night-heron stalks and potoo whistles

And something makes your neck-hairs bristle

That jars the nocturne melody.

*

Stilt-shod village, canal-side lot,

Under zinc-sheets, air thick and hot,

Table claps with another tot,

And fever seeks its remedy.

In paddy field the crickets sing,

A chilling gust makes lanterns swing

And Omen flits on scale’d wing

As bottles drain to clarity.

Swift with sinews and hoarse with rust,

With sweated groan and rum-willed thrust,

So taunted and red-seething lust

Shall fill a backdam sepulchre.

* * *

*

©M.G Warenycia 2017