Ian Pople

His Father's Binoculars


That day was their first use
in the whole time since
his father's death, eleven years
before; the mute swan

and the whooper, avocet
and teal, tufted duck and lapwing,
the pochard and the redshank;
pushed the eyepieces closer

and apart, that occluded,
needed to be refocused;
shoveller duck and egret,
marsh harrier, bunting.