Drab-plumaged parody of peacock:
scarlet head and scrawny neck,
a dizzy blush, a balding crown
resembling a vulture's pate,
ungainly yellow-collared clown,
oblivious to odd effect,
dashing across trafficked streets
in purposeful pursuit of breakfast,
nesting sites and perquisites,
or madcap mates;
industrious (the alpha male)
in mound-building and maintenance,
negligent once eggs are hatched,
so that each unprotected chick
must learn to elude predators,
to hunt and peck in orphaned state
as soon as it emerges from the shell;
the tail a black, primeval, oscillating
fan, a rough-draft hand, a sideways-
flattened flange, a flag, a stabilising
rudder that corrects each impulse-
led trajectory, each headlong rush;
sturdy, pronged prehensile feet
for gouging garden beds
and raking up those perfect
cone-shaped nests;
an ancient eye, a saurian regard
for the pragmatic test -
gauging friend or foe,
a source of food or undetected
threat - a primitive survivor,
one might think, whose simple
needs and tastes, hard-nosed
practicality and commonsense
will likely outlast peacock finery,
and likewise resist parody and epithet.