View From My Window

This is one of the poems I submitted for the poetry assignment. I did okay! Very okay. I am a little breathless with relief. 

Winter’s Flagging

The pampas flags are at half mast, broken banners on the battlefield,     

the colour of bleached bone. Stripped clean by carrion winds.

The apple tree wraps its skeletal frame in streamers of ivy, dusty, dusky,

a faded camp-follower, sitting watch in her mouldering finery.

The lemon-acid winter sun, bright, etches umber, ecru, russet and moss green

on tree-trunks, terracotta warriors, camouflaged in the hedgerows.

The fragrant musk of mating fox hangs low to show that he can come and go at will. 
Screaming vixens ambush the dawn. Paprika tail flags up another conquest.

The robin’s gleaming breastplate far out-glows the understated English livery

of a finch in flight , and pigeons in pink waistcoats take the victors’ rights,

anticipating Spring.