A magpie robin dressed in black tie

conducts the morning music with his beak.

With the perking of his tail

the sun is released from its dark net.

The robin picks up an insect

from the morning's choice of breakfast.

Flying back to the branch

he gulps it

to the tune of its struggling wings.

Soon children and horns

school bells and dogs

join issue with the silence

of morning butterflies.

The robin sits on the branch

imitating sounds of other bird

with the honesty of his music.

But all his pirated songs

cannot say what he wants to.

The magpie robin wants to be a child

to go without a satchel to school

to sing multiplication tables

to crawl under a desk and then

climb the tree where he now sits.

Evening creeps out of its hole

as shadows blot out the school

and the faces of children.

The magpie robin sits

with his pert tail

lowered now to half-mast.

With an angry nod of his beak

the robin sweeps the waiting sun down

under the carpet of darkness.
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