While watching the finches diminish the fare I've set willingly for them, this is what has occurred:


Just Eat Like a Bird
Virginia Salter

they eat ‘n’ eat ‘n ‘eat ‘n’ eat
how do they go on so?
I guess it’s cause they’re ever moving,
yes, they’re always on the go

they stay so slim, as slim can be
looking lovely and most svelte
from wing to wing, the finch we see
just make our sweet hearts melt

it would be so fine, indeed,
if I could stay so thin
perhaps if could fly on high
I’d be likewise quite so trim

yes, if I could flap my wings quite fast,
enough to carry me aloft,
my belly and thighs, and the spots ‘neath my eyes
would nary be so soft

now I hear tell, once out of the shell,
a bird eats enough in one day
to equal its weight five times over, my friend,
and it never has need to pay

yet, should I endeavor to follow the lead
of my lovely, fine-feathered friend
‘twould be awfully expensive, leaving me pensive
of how, through life, I’d fend

verily, I say to you,
who would be as thin as a rail
to eat more than one-fifth of one’s weight in a day
would send one to calorie jail

© March 31, 2001