FIFE schoolteacher Andrew McNeil has an unexpected encounter with another species of shopper in his supermarket car park..

CHRISTMAS SHOPPER

Level to my car carapace eye

Five robin body lengths away

The blackbird guzzles yellow jewels.

Stuck as the rush of bipeds with bags

Goes by this atavistic duel

He eyes me as shoppers pass, motors run.

A yellow ocular rim gives his stare power

Mine bigger, less focused, mindful of the other.

Swallowing the berry orbs offered

He yields not a bit.

Relents to the green interior

His adversary is moving:

A fawn-coloured Mini has muscled in

Into a queue fat with the unnatural fuming.