Osama - The Lesson of the Blackbird

Now here’s a story, I have to tell.
Pray excuse me,
If I do not tell it well.
It was a warm spring day,
Not long ago,
I happened to gaze, through a window,
And in the garden,
A murderous scene was set,
One I saw and shall not forget.

I saw a blackbird trapped upon the ground,
From his open, orange beak, came not a sound,
Over him talons upon his throat,
A Kestrel stood,
Wings spread like a hood
Hiding his dark deed,
From the neighbourhood.
Deadly claws held firm the prey,
Remorseless, almost sanguine,
Was he in his way.

His stranglehold tightened,
Upon the blackbird, frightened.
Its small feathered body,
Struggled and fought,
Though it seemed, all for nought.
With every sinew, it struggled and strived,
Fighting for life and the strength to survive.

It flittered and fluttered,
Gasping for air,
Afraid to die, in the kestrels lair,
Fighting for time,
For time was life,
Worth the pain and all the strife,
Till the blackbird,
Could fight no more,
And death upon him,
Closed the door.

Whilst feathered friends looked on alarmed,
The kestrel, feeling its prey becalmed,
Winged effortless into the cloudless sky,
One last time, the blackbird to fly.

Then Osama,
Your words came to me once more,
The words I have heard, many times before.
We prefer life but you prefer death,
You said.
But the blackbird was gone,
The blackbird was dead.
No longer do we hear his song.
Nor see him fly among the hedgerows,
Nor over fields, where the thistle and the nettle grows,
No longer does he scamper on my lawn,
Picking up breadcrumbs in the early morn.
Ah! death, I’ve seen it clear.
Is the end of life, God holds dear.

You see Osama, Nature’s laws are unbending,
The struggle for life, is unending.
It is not death the Blackbird seeks,
Though he live for years,
Or merely weeks.
It’s life, the Blackbird cherishes,
Not death by which he perishes.

Osama, if it is death you prefer,
Then why life do you suffer?
If death Osama, is so glorious,
Why is Allah’s work so laborious?
If it is in death we are living
Why is Allah, life giving?
If death is true light,
What need we of sight,
To see life’s glories,
Or ears,
To hear life’s stories?
And why Osama, would you flee,
The talons of the Kestrel,
Swooping down from the tree?

Without life Osama, there is no God,
And without God, there is no life
That’s why blackbird struggles and strives,
Why bees hum in their hives.
It is not for death, they suffer strife,
It is for time, for time is life.
And every time, has a season.
If blackbird lives, he lives for reason.
Blackbird is born of God’s creation,
Wondrous, beyond our imagination.

Our soul to God we give,
Not to die,
But to live and live.
In life we hear the blackbird’s song,
But in death, his music is forever gone.
The mournful silence of death, cannot be heard.
Unlike the song, of a singing blackbird.
So who, Osama, chooses to die?
Not the Blackbird, the kestrel or I,
If death is so glorious Osama,
Then please tell me why,
Why the great Allah, made you and I?
And why Osama, would you flee,
The talons of the Kestrel,
Swooping down from the tree?