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