Death, As Told By The Birds Poem by Sheena Blackhall

(Cuckooing is the practice by County Lines Drug Dealers of targeting a vulnerable person & using their home as a drug den)

When the stork delivered you,
Bluebirds filled the heavens
The wren dreamt you would become a peregrine
The noblest, sleekest raptor in the woods

The sparrow days gave way to raven darknesses
You sang like a blackbird, my feathered, handsome, beauty

Searingly, the way through the trees grew black
The magpie whispered of sorrow, of evil secrets
It told me a burgeoning cuckoo was in your nest

The owl suggested bringing an eagle in
Against the murder of crows that circled ominous

Too late. That mellifluous song was silenced forever
Into the ground, the ultimate escape
Peace at last bought at the highest price