Day 581 – Ocean liner (O’Shea)

It’s been a while since we heard from our poet Rik O’Shea – and here he is on Day 581 of the daily poems, watching the sparrows dotting in and out of the tall privet hedge in his back garden …

Ocean liner

the privet hedge is higher than a man,
it glows green and speckled in the sun,
a living wall, an ocean liner 
out at sea

those gaps and hollows in its sides 
serve as portholes for the birds;
they offer perching space
for sparrows

who sit with cheeky beaks
peering out, bright-eyed to peek
for the swoop
of the marauding herring gull

Rik O’Shea