Almost Extinct
The rest of him is stained and crumpled
but this, as if a precious thing,
is kept immaculately folded,
palsied hands fumble it out and lift
the edges
the way he’d look inside a sandwich,
then re-align, pat, and put away,
preserving shape from when she would
borax-boil the whole flock
to remove secretions and whiten,
then smooth and fold, smooth and fold.
Once he’d let it flutter
at station farewells and - before
it lost dexterity and cunning -
lay eggs to entertain,
but now it lies alone each night
with its faded monogram
the last one
in the wardrobe he built years ago
from a dismantled pigeon loft.
Page(s) 17
magazine list
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- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
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- Fabric
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- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
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- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
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- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
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- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
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- Poetry Salzburg Review
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- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
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- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The