The Nervous Man

The nervous man Slight awkward stance Waiting for a train Talking to the rain Is he mad? Is he sad? A broken heart? How many times has his life been torn apart? He doesn’t fit in Fashion and style were never his thing His glasses, dark brimmed sixties style A cardigan under the coat His fathers before his no doubt! The nervous man Avoiding eye contact with his fellow man Looking at the floor Concrete’s concrete for ever more! A kestrel for some reason lands Walks up to the nervous man He doesn’t know what to do Does the raptor just wants some food? It stands in front of him Starts pecking at his ankle and shin? He tries to shoo it away But this falcon means to stay It flies around his face It tries to peck his face His glasses fall and crack He tries to run away and crushes them under foot He bumps into a man and that makes him run closer to the track He slips and lands on the line People try but there is no time! The kestrel watches and leans over to make sure? It turns and sees me looking at it for sure! It then flys up to my seat and sits looking hard at me Then it flies and hovers in front of me I stand and take a step back to see Then it frantically pecks hard at the plastic screen It then flies up and sits on a pole Dumbfounded I look at the damage done I see beyond the holes in the plastic cover to what is underneath A lost notice for a pretty girl I look closer at the story next to her face I can’t believe and through the commotion on the platform look up to see the kestrel on its perch He’s gone and I turn back to see The young girl missing and I re-read the story in front of me She was fifteen and had a unique hobby indeed! For she was a falconer and her Kestrel was called ‘Mercy’