A Blackbirds lament

[Keith]

The pellet hit your breast
and took my breath,
adrenaline fuelled a rising panic,
a realisation
I had taken a life.

I laid the breadcrumbs,
hid behind the garden wall.
waited in silence as you landed,
lined the sight, squeezed the trigger.
It was all my responsibility.

Your body was still warm
as I tried to revive you,
soft like you were filled with water.
The colour of your beak,
the clarity of your eyes,
the perfect design of your feathers-
all wasted by me.
I buried you in the garden
and made promises
that I have kept.

The following year I saved
a fledgling thrush
from the mouth of a cat,
raised it on worms,
set it free when the weather
turned warm;
gave it back your life.

He only visited the garden
a few times,
but I kept looking.
Maybe he made new friends
or maybe the other birds told him
what I was really like.