The Pigeon Woman

The pigeons from the rooftop watch as she shuffles by
And they recognize their food source and down towards her they fly
On the grass margins by the pavement the pigeons mill around
As she opens her paper bag full of grain and spreads it around.

Between two and three p.m. seven days a week in weather wet
or fine
She brings with her a small bag of grain in hail, rain or sunshine
And around two o clock on the rooftops the pigeons congregate
They know that feeding time is near and on her arrival wait.

On her next birthday in February Claudia will be seventy four
And she has been feeding pigeons for sixty years or more
She fed them with her grandma as a child in Italy
Before migrating to Melbourne by the Pacific sea.

She is one of those people who love creatures great and small
But pigeons are her favourites and she loves them best of all
She fed them with her grand mother when gran was old and gray
And she too will be feeding them until her dying day.

She's known as 'The Pigeon Woman' by those who of her know
And people in their fifties say they saw her years ago
Feeding pigeons by the pavement when she was in her prime
And they were young school goers and that's going back in time

The pigeons seem to know her as she walks down the street
They fly down from the roof top and them she always greet
With a paper bag full of seed and grain which they eat hurriedly
And every day 'tis feeding time betwen two o clock and three.