September Ontology
Mark A. Murphy
Now we see the post-breeding sparrows as notes
in a musical score, perching
upon the telephone wires into town
before embarking
on their long-distance migration into Africa.
We admire them in their thousands
flocking south peaceably through Semptember skies
with the overture
of an Indian summer ahead of us.
So the young composer is left to transpose
the birds positions
upon the stave - into hope
for humanity's autumnal score.
Who will perish in the late heat-wave?
No one rightly knows,
except the swallows on the wing,
passing, as they do,
the war games of man, in their journeying
over land and sea.
*
Mark A. Murphy’s first full length collection, Night-watch Man & Muse was published
in 2013 by Salmon Poetry, Eire. His next full collection, Night Wanders Plea is to be published by Waterloo press in December 2017. His poems have appeared in over 175 journals worldwide.