Virginia Rounding: Author/editor/proofreader

A blackbird alone in the dying sun’s footlights

sings to a backdrop of indigo blue;

for the sound of its voice, for the sake of the singing,

it plays out the longest day of the year.

Perched on the rooftop, stop-out blackbird,

late home, carousing, careless of time,

emptying its throat till its heart is empty,

scattering the tune like stars in the street;

unnoticed by drivers cocooned in their vehicles,

by comfortable viewers with volume turned up:

only the walkers of dark hear this singing –

the carolling bird in summer’s midnight.

©Virginia Rounding, 1993

First published in Poetry Nottingham International, Autumn 1995

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