Saturday, September 21, 2019

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.)

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