Magpies

Remembrance Sunday 2006, St Albert’s square, Manchester, and a gang of Magpies cackle throughout the service and then the silence, like football rattles in the trees, antagonising the respectful. It was the first time I’d ever seen them there, dancing above the gentle crowds. One tapped at my window once, when I wrote of darkness, but again, only then; One for sorrow, Two for joy, Three for a girl, Four for a boy, Five for silver, Six for gold, Seven for a secret, Never to be told.