POEMS/ Like a Murmuration of Starlings
Like a Murmuration of Starlings
for Helen MacDonald
Listen to the desperate tread
of thousands of feet fleeing
chaos to live in other lands
locked out, arrested, or sent back.
Listen as their numbers multiply
and their murmur builds and rises
just as a flock of starlings
flying together for safety
from their predators
in one great swirling cloud
a darkly murmuring planet
seems a living, pulsing
alien presence
till landing one by one
each is transformed again
to single birds, refugees,
whose needs are ours –
freedom from fear, food,
a place to safely sleep,
where murmurs slow and soften
like lightly falling rain.
©Phyllis Beck Katz
for Helen MacDonald
Listen to the desperate tread
of thousands of feet fleeing
chaos to live in other lands
locked out, arrested, or sent back.
Listen as their numbers multiply
and their murmur builds and rises
just as a flock of starlings
flying together for safety
from their predators
in one great swirling cloud
a darkly murmuring planet
seems a living, pulsing
alien presence
till landing one by one
each is transformed again
to single birds, refugees,
whose needs are ours –
freedom from fear, food,
a place to safely sleep,
where murmurs slow and soften
like lightly falling rain.
©Phyllis Beck Katz