Outside the bedroom window 
a pair of magpies nest,
breeding hatchlings
noisy with wants.
Hair-raising squawks
know life for a week;
   grandfather's 22
   and silence.

For Mr. Lanchbury's funeral
God sends a magpie,
   behind the mourners
   nestled in a honeysuckle
a lone sentry remains 
through ceremonial gun-shots, 
through jumbles of sorrow;
   stolid and majestic
   the bearer of silence.