The Bird We Found at the Cliff (Booby)

Lyrics

[Intro]

[Verse 1]
We walked the cliff path near Strasbourg,
that May evening in 1740,
when the air turned thick with their wings.
You spotted it first, tangled in the gorse,
Melolontha melolontha, as Linnaeus named it in '58,
reddish-brown, fanned antennae quivering.
It wasn't a bird, though it flew like one at dusk,
buzzing heavy over the muddy fields.

[Chorus]
The cockchafer we found at the cliff,
heavy in your palm, legs scrabbling,
that earthy musk on your fingers,
like damp soil after rain, 10 degrees Celsius.
Not a pest, not a plaything,
just this one, caught in the wind,
its life cycle spilling out in the fading light.

[Verse 2]
Remember the children in rural Germany,
stringing them into necklaces for bounties,
grim games under gray skies.
Ours landed soft, no swarm this time,
just solitary, feeding on oak leaves nearby,
ragged edges like torn paper.
We watched it right itself,
wings unfolding with a faint whir.

[Bridge]
Carl Linnaeus, at 51, pinned it down in Stockholm,
but here, on this cliff, it escapes the page,
alive in the cool breeze, 6 PM shadows lengthening.
What if we let it go, this May bug,
back to its root-feeding days underground?

[Verse 3]
You held it gently, burlap sack forgotten,
no pitchforks or carts today.
The scent of torn greenery lingered,
mixed with your skin, that unexpected tickle.
It flew off toward the horizon,
a small strange fact in the vast evening.

[Outro]
The bird we found at the cliff,
wasn't a bird at all.