One cross crow shrieks

Squawks, caws, swoops sharply down at my bare head

Perches calm, on lowest branch of nearby tree, to stare at me

Two tiny terriers tug taut leads

Doggy daycare dame, all uncaring, stomps along

Just a job — she robots on, ear-budded, rapt inside her screen

Three masked women murmur, coo, cradle cappuccinos

Select best seats with practiced care beneath striped café canopy

Now — fingers twitch faceward, pause, cups steam

Up? Down? Off? What to do? O! What to do?

Four old old men, all sporting canes, stand shaky

shouting by the bank — loud rage builds quick, slow fades

you round the corner as they move apart, walk on

Then sudden blur of motion, sound — feeblest turns back!

attacks anew — near death all four but not, it seems, that near

Five cats on view today — one stealthy, garden prowling sleek

One stretched out dreamy-creamy on sun-warmed stairs

Two gazing at each other, or glaring? lost in dark feline world

One talking prettily to me through too-high fence

(we both are sad, perhaps, that she can't come to me)

Six small eggs on offer at the market

Container torn in half, yolky smears, rough trade incident implicit

Six dollars for six eggs! How?

Seven a.m. — seven hours since midnight, all full of painful dream

Rise up! Rise up to meet a world without meeting

Greet a day with no-one greeting

Eight red-and-white carnations left, erect in old tin bucket by the till

Corner store temptation as St Valentine draws near

But . . . all those perfumed memories

too sad, maybe? while you wonder

someone wiser leans down, takes them — now they're gone

Nine pretty pigeons

Perch so high in white-blue sky

Gripping far-up power lines

Brief silent thanks for sudden sun