by Syd Denise Fredrickson

A Sparrow and a Dove sat and talked to one another.
Long ago, far away, each was intrigued by the other.

Sparrow chirped, while Dove would coo
And their conversation flowed.

Like a song it warbled on
A pleasant harmony they sowed.

Then the Raven with its beak came and broke into their song.
“Don’t you know,” he said to them, “this mixing of the flocks is wrong?”

“No,” they said, and turned away.
“We do not like the rules you give.”

So they sang to one another,
And more happily they lived.