Seven tui at the water dish yesterday
Seven! All at once!
Not one or two but a whole whanau
An entire community of tui
Resplendent in their iridescent coats and white neck ties
What should that be called?
They deserve a special title
An assembly of tui?
A temptation of tui?
A treaty? A troop? A tribe?
They croaked and chittered
Chirped and chattered
As they do
Their prattle filling the air
With all the odd sounds they toss out and about
They flit in from the Manuka, wings whirring
To the water dish and back – Move over! What a palaver!
And we watched – frozen – enthralled
As they negotiated their spots with a flap, a teasing taunt
And a loud squawk
It filled our hearts
So many birds – warbling and fluttering
Singing hope
Back into our world
C Langenhoven ©
