We are Starlings

We are Starlings,

We are House sparrows,

Found in disused pipes

Under bathroom windows,

For those five consecutive summers,

Until the cat.

 

Shadows grow,

Winter solstice

Will come and go,

Warming embellishments,

Whiskey beds.

 

We pour a hundred times,

Fermented tall tales,

Corked wines.

 

Eyes that mimic life,

Alive in hibernation,

Simple nests sustain us

Until they don’t.

 

Every winter,

You go a little further,

Sometimes to places far colder.

 

Every winter,

I stay a little longer

And the summers find us less

Together.

 

The cat prowls over,

Shaking while it stalks,

An unnatural chill

Between the lingering snowdrops.

It’s time to leave,

Before those talons find the nest.