Show Saturday

By Rachel Burns

 

We stop to watch four white geese

herded into a pen by a border collie

taking instructions from a red- headed man

who whistles left and right turns

one short whistle, one long.

 

Something goes wrong

and the four white geese escape.

The collie dog confused gives chase

the geese fly into the air, up, up and away.

 

You take my hand

and lead me into the show tent

the ground muddy and wet

there is a smell of saw dust

wet clothes and dog,

and a sharp intake of breath

at the hot stink of ferrets.

 

In the middle, cages and cages of racing pigeons

and old men smoking cigarettes, talking about their birds

as if they are kept women.

 

I walk away and stop to talk to the bee keeper.

He has taken a section of the colony

and placed it into a glass frame

so people can see the hive’s busy industry,

 

the drones working in the honeycombed catacombs

while the Queen lies on her back, fat and swelling

waiting for the day she will be balled out of the hive.

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Photo by Denys Nevozhai on Unsplash