Jackdaw gifts

He brings sticks, shells, an empty crisp packet - I turn the soil to unveil sprouting seeds, leatherjackets. We are a symbiosis. He brings a clattering of jackdaws chack-chacking, feathers and a full heart, ash trees studded black. He brings dusk and darkness, an end to summer, harvest. Each morning I pour water and watch him bathe. He knows I saved him from the raven, taught him to fly, gave him life, now he flies to me with gifts - nutshells, lambs’ tails, twigs, watches me weave a nest of our love, pretends he'll never leave