Open Mic Surgery

Chivvying flock of starling thugs

provoke their own screaming arcs

to settle on bushes

arranged different

Their peacock importance

casts a ‘looking past me eye’

And with a ruff of sudden display

those Chinese silks are fanning desires

Making a meal of laudatory crumbs

this cheery tree of Noèl lights

of spangled baubles

and silver bells

and pretty poets all in a row

Smiles cracked,

under the weight of ambition

they ransom themselves

on each other’s probability

or on them, this time

seizing the nugget

of envy