Red-winged blackbirds warn,
trilling shrill they guard fledglings
Beaks strafe my gray head!
Photograph by Nature’s Pics Online
Haiku #30
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THE WOUND THAT HEALS 
That’s fantastic. Had to look up strafe. Ouch…lovely, haiku, Mary Jo.
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Thank you, Jeff. Reading it aloud, the words don’t exactly roll off the tongue, but it might work to suggest the panicky feeling. Unfortunately ‘strafe’ automatically comes watching too many war movies growing up.
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When I read “strafe,” Alfred Hitchcock’s movie “The Birds” immediately came to mind.
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I know, right?!
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For sure!
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Indeed, it does work. I got the “panicky and ouchness”. Ah, I watched lots of war movies growing up, yet hadn’t encountered that word, or, rather, don’t remember doing so. You’re most welcome, Mary Jo.
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‘The Birds!”
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Right? I read that in some marshy areas if you get attacked, you need to run for cover! Thank you, Tim.
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Cool Haiku, you need a hat! love the red flash on the blackbird, ours don’t have that.
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Thanks, Fraggle. Even a hat doesn’t help! Yeah, these dive bombers are indigenous to the Americas.
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They are unquestionably territorial. One buzzed me on a golf tee in May.
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Oh that had to be distracting! Their territory is growing frighteningly wide hereabouts. Thanks, Frank.
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This made me smile. Be careful out there! 😄
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For real. I walk with a cane in one hand, and the other was waving frantically LOL. Thank you, Brad.
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Vivid tour de force of a poem, Mary Jo! Reminds me that, when I was a kid, I walked onto my back porch from inside the house, narrowly missed stepping on a baby bird I didn’t see, and got attacked by the parent bird. 😲
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Yikes! That must have been terrifying on both counts! Our feathered friends are not always so friendly. I’m always surprised that animals don’t understand there’s no threat from me, then call them dumb. Perhaps I’m the numbskull for believing they intuit or ‘think’ that deeply. Thank you, Dave. 🙂
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Our redwinged blackbirds are quite aloof compared to yours.
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You’re fortunate, since they are normally such lovely birds. I think they’re overpopulated here with much favorable habitat, so intruders are seriously warned. 🙂
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I see. They’re relatively rare here, mostly hanging out in marshy areas where people can’t walk or build anything.
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This one went over my head. Might it be possible to use the word guard instead of strafe, or would this through off the other lines?
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Perhaps, you’re overthinking it, Jason. It’s an accounting of my literal experience of blackbirds strafing me with their beaks flying so near my head, I could reach out and touch them if I dared! They weren’t guarding my head, they were guarding their territory and I was the enemy! Nothing deep or philosophical here. 🙂 Sorry if I confused you.
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You have restored my sight with your penetrating light; it’s all rather clear to me now, and all I can really utter is Wow!
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Oh-oh…. those beaks can be ominous! At least you got a warning! Brilliant, my dear Mary Jo! …take cover! 😉
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This is very true of birds, Mary Jo. Our Loeries dive bomb our cat when she pretends to stalk them. They take threats very seriously.
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Thanks, Robbie! You know whereof I speak. 🙂
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How bizarre, Mary, I could almost swear that I commented on your poem; demonstrating both literally and figuratively that the blackbird went over my head. May we keep our hearts open to the truth that brings no harm…
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Forgive me, Jason. Your comments, as well as mine, have been located and restored. 🙂
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