The find
It was getting on for evening when I found them
Glistening and solid under the cracked roof:
Eggs, green as the gloom in the ruin,
Nested into a bundle of old newspaper,
Lying on a rusted bed.
I searched
The rafters, scanning for a wing-beat,
Cocking my ear for a chirp.
I knew I shouldn’t interfere with the nest
And was making to retreat when something
Blacker than old red lead and softer than stone
Caught my eye in the grate.
Lifting it,
I held the sooty, still-warm corpse
And felt for a beat or breath among
Its bony softness. Finding none,
I touched the eggs.
They were cold
As glass in my hand as I cupped them out
Into the light. I washed the bird in ditch-water,
Bringing some colour to it. I left the bird, the eggs,
The nest, like an offering on the warm ground.
Next day I found all of them gone.
Glistening and solid under the cracked roof:
Eggs, green as the gloom in the ruin,
Nested into a bundle of old newspaper,
Lying on a rusted bed.
I searched
The rafters, scanning for a wing-beat,
Cocking my ear for a chirp.
I knew I shouldn’t interfere with the nest
And was making to retreat when something
Blacker than old red lead and softer than stone
Caught my eye in the grate.
Lifting it,
I held the sooty, still-warm corpse
And felt for a beat or breath among
Its bony softness. Finding none,
I touched the eggs.
They were cold
As glass in my hand as I cupped them out
Into the light. I washed the bird in ditch-water,
Bringing some colour to it. I left the bird, the eggs,
The nest, like an offering on the warm ground.
Next day I found all of them gone.
Page(s) 28-29
magazine list
- Features
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- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- 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