The Great Tit, April 2022

 

The Great Tit couldn’t draw a map

to save his skin,

but lassoes the air

which as he sings becomes him.

He knows nothing of the Moskova

or Mariupol,

 

but cartwheels tumbling

across the lawn, yellow-

and - black strings scattering

 

as he streaks to his perch,

shelling the mad kingdoms,

stretching the contours of our garden map,

indifferent to the lies we live by.