Please indulge me in this flight of fancy :
The Squabs are Here
They appeared at dawn,
Their vastness blocking out the pale sunrise.
They fed and fed all day, gorging on a cornucopia of objects
Til all was consumed, leaving an empty shell of a household.
As dusk fell they departed, an empty packing case,
Discarded on the pavement the only trace of their visit.
My neighbours have moved each to a different place. They are separating.
I find the name Squab is so strange in a 1950’s way, like HG Wells ‘War of the Worlds’ imagery,
– a mixture of squat and squabble ? The dictionary says
Definition : squab a & n 1. a short and fat