Poetry Box
The Mynah
By Chelsea Younglove, 8th Grade

Weary are her wings
As she flies down to the sea
Lending her no strength to reckon
With impending truth in dreams

She was a jolly jackdaw once
That widow by the sea
Now she is a mynah-bird
who repeats, repeats, repeats

“Where is my handsome eagle,
Who has flown out o’er the sea?
Will he return with gold in claw
To share his catch with me?”
Asks the mynah, mynah, mynah
who repeats, repeats, repeats

Garbed in plumage funeral black,
How it has dulled with age
Her lovely melodies intoned,
Now fled from inland stage

But the mynah, mynah, mynah
who repeats, repeats, repeats
Seems content enough to sing alone
Down by the rhythmic sea

“Where is my handsome eagle,
Who has flown out o’er the sea?
Has he found a swan or harrier
To love in place of me?”
Cries the mynah, mynah, mynah
she repeats, repeats, repeats

How yellowed and dry, her hollow face
Now streaked with ash and sorrow
And rasping voice no longer sings
Of romances or tomorrows
But the mynah, mynah, mynah
who repeats, repeats, repeats
Rejoices in her solitude
As she waits out by the sea

“Where is my handsome eagle,
Who has flown out o’er the sea?
Is he lost and still returning,
Perhaps thrown by rains that weep?”
Groans the mynah, mynah, mynah
who repeats, repeats, repeats

Dreary as the vulture
Fragile as the dove
Forsaken by her sailor
Her heart betrayed by love

That is the lonely mynah
With no time to drink or eat
She mourns beside a constant sea
and repeats, repeats, repeats
There is my handsome eagle,
Who has long since flown o’er sea.
He has found a vast and endless sky
To love in place of me!”
Screams the mynah, mynah, mynah
now loathing to repeat

“Long has my beloved
Traversed the sunrise gold,
Long has he left me here alone
To wither and turn old

“Well, I will never have it!
Long have I loved the sea!
And long will I dwell
In the bottomless swells
That long have cried to me!”

Then silent falls the mynah-bird—
Into the rhythmic sea
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