Waterside Picnic
THE river dashes into the sea. Near the bankSwans, crescent formation, watch a tourist who stands eating chips.Birds stretch necks, hiss like kettles.
The man flings burnt potato pieces;
stops.
So an old swan, fatter than the others,
stumbles across slimy pebbles, waits,
black eye fixed,
as the man puts his dinner on the river wall.
Then, this bird grabs greaseproof
drags it into shallows.
The flock become a big white scrum.
Beaks, hard as metal tongs,
snap under ripples.
Soon all the food is gone.
As birds arch necks the angry visitor
throws a yellow fork.
It floats down-stream, behind
parading swans.