16 DECEMBER 2006, Page 81

Jackdaws

Happy the jackdaws surrounded by their playmate Boisterous wind with which they wrestle and roll, Diving against it, wings closed; gripped and thrown Many ways, open-winged, spun in it chacking and looping.

Easy to envy jackdaws. Even those Who never look up, who curse the stopped and creeping Traffic must see their low flight in the distance As they descend to towns jackdaws poke fun at, See them in swirling pairs, amused and mated For life, defeated only when no one knows And never bullied by a wind too gusty.

Having lived too long in a town no jackdaw trusted, Where graveyards lacked their disrespectful tread, I spend my careless time airing my head.

Alan Dixon