Ode to a Wood Pigeon
This poem invites the reader to reflect on both the beauty of nature and the value of extending welcome and understanding to others. The poem is a metaphor for the plight of refugees. I listen to your simple five-note refrain, and admire your grey, white-collared beauty, so finely brushed with shades of pink and green, and watch you weave your wings in proud display; I wonder, is this the end of your weary flight? Some, I know, describe your kind as vermin, who only seek to poach our hard-won crops, but I would have them try to understand what mocking trials you have overcome to reach this blessèd garden, so far from home. For you are not a migratory sort, and would stay at home had grim fate allowed, yet happenstance has brought you to this bough; so I should not deny you a place to stay, but learn from you instead, and you from me. Now let the watching hen assess your worth, and the cooing sound of her soft cries echo in reply to your fluttered wings' display— the proclaiming pa...