The Cuckoo and the Lark

“Sing aloud love’s lark!” ~ Untraditional

The cuckoo and the skylark do not form

A cross in flight.  The lark flies up and high.

Its life is full of song and loving, warm.

The cuckoo doesn’t sing and it is sly.

Its flight is horizontal or, worse, slant,

The way its life is — being crude, a sneak

And cunning, selfish, selfish in its chant,

Cuckoo!  Cuckoo!  Its chant is more a freak

Of singing.  Selfishness of trick and death

For others’ eggs reveals the reason for

Its birdsong failure.  In its selfish breath

No air for love exists.  This bird won’t soar.

  The reason that a cuckoo has no song

    Is that its whole approach to life is wrong.

© Phillip Whidden