Pheasants Oats Lost

- One morning a female pheasant descended for love She struts her stuff outside my patio door Eager in her search and apparent in her end game Feathers of grey brown and flecked in blacks but drab over all Then a beautiful cock appears beside her unaware of me Plumes of crimson red autumn browns and blacks and whites for feathers So beautiful compared to the female gal They study each other and fret and back away and in again She does not want to give in for now She stands still finally and does not move He circles her in a one foot radius watching her lack of movement He cranes his neck under her beak and continues to circle for half an hour He circles and circles but something tells her no and finally she refuses She walks away in to my rough grass to the back of the house He thinks she is in the grass but I notice she immediately went through the hedge Gone for good he stays in the rough grass another six hours searching in vein