The Mockingbird Poem by Sidi Mahtrow

At first it seemed a game
Between the criminally insane.
A bird risking death without a care
To provoke this one, from the air.

Flying by the outstretched head
Ignoring the threat that other's dread.
Darting back and forth
In what appeared mindless mirth
As it teased this one of blackness
Intent only in causing distress
To this one of Nature's lowest creatures
That Eve discovered had other features.

The snake remained motionless
Seeming to ignore this flighty pest,
Then slowly raised his head
Above the surrounding grass, and instead
Of lying silently,
Motionless, patiently.
He challenged this demon of unrest
The long-tailed airborne pest.

His tongue darting out as if to warn
The bird that his scorn
Would be answered quickly by
A strike, as he flies
Nearer and nearer to the grassy stranger
Who seemed to pose no impending danger.

As if rising to the challenge, in mock
Of the snake, the bird feigned an attack
From one angle, reversing in mid-air
And came in a fast swoop, as if from no where.

The battle was over, the bird had won
As the snake dropped his head and was on the run.
Now attacking from the rear
The snake had much more to fear
As the bird with outstretched tiny talons
Plucked the tip of the tail and raised it to the heavens.

Having no defense from this attack
The snake squirmed and flipped its back.
Too late to strike at the offender
It was equivalent to surrender,
But the bird, no quarter given
Plunged again from the heavens.

Again and again he attacked
While the snake squirmed on its back.
Then as suddenly as it had begun
The mockingbird had had enough of his fun
And landing in a branch, on the fly,
Serenaded his mate, nesting nearby.