Contentment or Distraction?

There were four birds upon a line

Watching cattle grazing.

Said the one upon the left,

"Isn't that amazing?

They eat the grass and then lay down

To chew upon their cud.

They have no ambition

And do no kind of good."

Another bird, one of the four,

Said, "That's not the life for me.

I'd rather go exploring

And nest up in a tree."

And still another looked at them

And said, "Traveling is best;

I'm just stopping here awhile

And then I'm headed west.

Being stuck there in one place

With naught to see but grass

Would simply drive me crazy;

On that life, I would pass!"

The fourth looked at the other three

And said, "I love to fly!

Can you imagine life

Not reaching for the sky?"

So, each of them within his turn

Found reason to complain

While they looked down from their perch on high

With comments all in vain.

Along there came a hunter

Looking for the flying dove

Who saw the birds upon the wire

Distracted there above.

He slipped up quietly on them;

When startled, they took wing

But, only a short distance

Before the shots did sing.

The lesson that they might have learned

While looking on the cow

Is that they should have focused

On the simple here and now.

Judging others from on high

Based on what you see

Distracts you from your purpose

When it might be time to flee!

(If you look closely, in the top right portion of the photo are four birds on the wire.  I didn't notice them until I had posted the picture for today.  They sent my mind down the path of this poem.)