Author: [[Nick Roberts]] --- # Performance notes *imagine what a bird sounds like under a fascist regime. Shrill* # Lament of the Finnish Birdseller                                          *Helsinki, 1942* All this fretting and strut-wringing all the seasons at the same time. Pawning my golden canaries to soldiers like selling Skanda his own peacock, his clucking mount delivering his arms. Butchers with black mouths smile at me, nod, and buy budgerigars for fun. How do you imagine lime feathers look pressed against reporting stick grenades? Will they report back like cyclones and give grand soliloquies for a pill? Relope, relope my curated pandemonium and bring the eyes of Quisling in a pan. I’ll turn your cage into wedding rings.