A moment ago,
in a flicker of pique,
with a wave of the hand,
I dispersed them.
Glorious birds,
now they are back,
gold talons wrapped,
roosting.
Glorious birds,
aligned on a wire,
spearing the nits
in their feathers.
Donal Mahoney, a native Chicagoan living in exile in St. Louis, has poems published in or accepted by The Wisconsin Review, The Kansas Quarterly, The South Carolina Review, Commonweal, Revival, The Beloit Poetry Journal, The Istanbul Literary Review, The Davidson Miscellany, and other publications.