The When Girl in the Window

She flew from the Wenallt,
Tapped on the door every day
To tell me when,
But I still got it wrong.

She told me the when of everything –
When to eat, when to sleep,
Exactly when she wanted food –
But I still got it wrong.

I would place food down straight away –
Broken up biscuits and bread –
Or, I’d wait…but either way
I still got it wrong.
Because the squirrel got there first.

She picked a crumb up off the ground
With her beak, and finally I learned.

“The dirty robbing cunt”
I heard her tweet to the squirrel
As I picked the stuff up off the table
& sprinkled it in the grass
& on the bird-table
To make it easier for her
To get it than the squirrel.

Nick Fisk, 10 May 2022