It's Still Life

Pigeons Lessons

It was Grandpa who taught me
the lesson of returning home.

You see, he had two homing pigeons,
‘though they could have been doves,
the colour of magnolias and lilies.

Grandpa cooed each pigeon goodbye
before hefting them into the air.
Good luck, he said, as their velvet
angel wings echoed into the night.

They flew through moonlight into
a wedge of morning sun. A sparkle
on water as they headed toward
a big city man with a faded heart
tattooed on his forearm. But,

those two birds never returned,
and the big city man said they’d
never arrived. Grandpa called him
all sorts of names. A liar. Thief.
A corkscrew in his bleeding heart.

I remember Grandpa saying that
a homing pigeon that won’t return
is just a stupid pigeon pecking
away at someone’s onion patch.

And that’s when I knew.
I should always return home.

for dVerse Poetic Lessons