Messengers of Peace

Outside our wintry breakfast
window a genial gathering of
gentle doves on the bare, black
branches of a fortuitously-nearby
backyard tree, preening and cooing,
their wings whistling as they lift
into the chill, clear blue sky to
spread their classic, celebrated
message: Peace. These are,
moreover, mourning doves, and
these birds have reason to mourn.

Yes, peace, comfort, even
serenity reign here in this so
fortunate part of an otherwise
fractious world. It is not we
particularly who could benefit
from that subtle presence and the
message they deliver, though we
do. Elsewhere war rages, armies
clash catastrophically with civil
demonstrators seeking - peace.

In our afternoon woodland stroll
we go there also in peaceful
tranquility and there, black crows
circling above the trees croak their
harsh message, castigating, scolding.
Much as the wise peacemakers and
state dignitaries of the United Nations
do, deploring the wild breakouts of
war and civil insurrections uncivilly
claiming innocent lives, bloodying the
Earth and illustrating how nature
has favoured her avian kingdom over
humankind's failed rationality.

	Photography: -- M Bajema