Two Turtledoves Poem by Denys E. W. Jones

From time to time two turtledoves
Land on my terrace while I read.
I supplement their normal diet
With grains of rice or seeds.

Sometimes I offer them my palm,
To see if they will eat.
At once these wary birds pull back,
Until they’ve put three feet

Between my outstretched hand and them.
They like to keep a buffer zone,
A No-Man’s-Land, a yard or so –
No closer will they ever come

To rummage, scratch or peck.
They know the hand that gives them food
Could be the hand that wrings their necks.

30/8/08