Bird bath in winter

Within minutes they were down, the sparrow and the goldfinch daring each to jump


a couple of starlings making the plunge, shaking water through fluffed-out feathers,


and this one, what I thought was a thrush but now believe is a young starling


and a goldfinch, burnished bonze.


Go outside, and they fly to tree and rooftop: thrumming their wings, small scraps of feathers drifting down and catching the sun like glitter, with such an air of impatient expectation that it seems unkind not to go in again and leave them to do their icy bathing in peace.