Doves Fly Past In Pairs Poem by Gert Strydom

Doves fly from sunrise
until late afternoon past in pairs
and the whole day their singing resounds

and just before the rainstorm comes (out of season)
the air is full of swallows
sweeping up and down
catching insects.

starlings, sparrows and finches scream
as if the end of this autumn,
is already the beginning of spring

where they are eating blue-black berries
in evergreen trees
and it’s as if nature
knows something secret about this winter.

The rays of the sun are now measured out much cooler
but the grass still has its green colour
and there are irises
which flowers out of season
from all the rain
and the giant sage bush
is covered with purple clusters
hanging in strings

and early in the mornings when I get up later
the black-collard barbet knocks me awake
asking screeching
when I am going to get up
and I look at him
where he endlessly are scolding me
and I wonder
why the birds
are suddenly so jolly?

or do they know
that the season
is at the edge of change
and that man with pollution
is causing irreparable damage?