Peacock, Castle Howard
After the coast, this. Miles of brown
and rain. A two hour tickertape of trees.
The sun dazzles the wet. In the roadâs wells.
On the brown leaves. The only bold the blue
numbers restless in the fields, lambs sprayed
with a claim. We pull in for the castle shop,
thinking local venison, thinking cheese. Unkink
our backs in the car park, squint in the bright.
Itâs the high cry that prompts us to look â here!
here! All the worldâs colour on the rampart wall,
every fruit and jewel condensed. This is where
the summer went: blue sky, green grass, gold
flower to butter a throat. Lovelier for the park deer
and their brown crowns. Lovelier for the moat
of mud and moss. All cries and trailing silks,
like a killed queen mourning her head. See how
we stop for beauty. Stand in the mushroomy damp
and gape. On another planet, a footballâs kicked.
A chimney smokes. A pike tickles the face of a lake.
Magpie
Cock of the walk, of the square swept just for him
of studs of gum and plastic wrap.
This hereâs the cityâs kingpin. See how he struts,
dapper as Capone in his suit and spats.
Imagine a gun slung underwing, and cigarettes.
Moonshine in a monogrammed flask.
He keeps each gleam and glittering thing. A tax:
foil packets, ear-less pearls with silver backs,
and the double score of shining lid
and cream filched from the newsagentâs mat.
And there his club of mobsters, glossy-tuxed,
rattling the statues with their gunfire chat.
Iâve seen them flatten pigeons in a mood.
Iâve seen them swagger, cocky, by the cat
who sleeps outside on the chip-shop bins,
dreaming of cod and feathered things
rounding out his old bones to fat. Then: Scat!
A toddler runs, all whoops and waving arms a-flap,
and the magpies lift in a sheet of black. For a moment,
the whole sky is dark as pitch, and then
they tack away. And the square is suddenly light, and plain,
like a storm has broken, done with its old havoc.
Flamingo
As though the gas was left on high, and a match
struck. And now the pale flames are licking at the glass
with long tongues of rosy light. Or else the yolk
of sunrise broke, and washed each bird in its blush,
the way red wine defies salt and sponge.
Some are soft; white lace held against a girlâs ch...