Pet Parrot Poem by Manjula Reddy

PET PARROT

Parrots so many fly over our house
At dusk everyday and the next day at dawn
Dressed in bright green with wings in full form
A necklace of rubies they each splendidly adorn

This grand flight of a few hundreds or more
Happens quietly, with no fanfare or furore
It's such a delight to watch these birds fly
The flocks go by in the blink of an eye

The dawn takes them from the South to the North
With an inbuilt compass they carry forth
The evening sky brings them back South
I gaze at them with open mouth

They fly on the same path everyday
As though on a long invisible highway
In flocks of twenty to maybe a hundred
They fly like an army marching onward

Some take a break on the nearby tamarind trees
It's hard to spot them among the green leaves
What gives them away is the flutter of their wings
Oh! What a thrill this to my urban mind brings

Dee wanted a pet parrot in a pretty cage
Like the one at the pet shop; it's quite the rage
Parrots, I said to her, don't belong in cages
To nature they belong from ages and ages

Let these beautiful Indian parrots roam the blue skies
Until tall buildings destroy their homes and their lives
Picking envelopes for eager humans under the fortune-teller's spell
If only their own bleak future they could foretell