Rivals
Poetry
A blood-red cardinal sang, perched, twirling this way and that, searched
for supper in my nearly empty feeder.
He bobbed over to my window glass, where, in insouciant chattery crass,
another played follow-the-leader.
To my clean white car he swooped;
still chasing his intruder, he pooped,
in disregard for the feeder’s seeder!
Pecking and flashing plumage so red,
he’d fight to kill this other bright head.
He thought his own image a rival breeder!
Pamela Brothers Denyes’ award-winning poems appear in multiple journals and international anthologies. Her full-length poetry collections, The Right Mistakes and The Widow’s Lovers, are available from Kelsay Books and Amazon. Pamela’s chapbook, As I Lay Dreaming, is available on her web site. Now retired, she's harvesting forty years of poetry journals to create new works—and fun! Reach her at www.pbdenyes.com.