Blakbird



A timid creature once lived in the top pocket of her school blazer

Fur of caramel, eyes of black discs like those flat fossils with swirls

She’d fed it bite-sized pieces of lolly wrappings, beeswax and fibs

until it became her most loyal   her only   confidante

When she first heard the creature purring

she knew that one day it would leave her 
A black bird once nested in her stomach / she can’t recall why

Only the pain / She’d existed on fragments of feathers and pain

At night it sang dirges so dark / keeping her awake, yearning

During the day it pecked at her / last slivers of dreams

One overcast day they’d sung a duet

of endless deserts and warm seas
A demon once sat on her shoulder / hissing of hope in her right ear

An angel hung off her left shoulder / drunkenly narrating troubles

They’d never let her get a word in / allow even a blink of sleep

She’d read love sonnets out loud / to drown out their words

One day they’d listened, entranced

tears and snot rolling down cheeks 
An unwanted map lies nestled in the sole / of their scuffed boot

Paper-edges scratch at their psyche / in red ink the past is etched

Their birth certificate now mere cinders / that version forgotten

With a Blakbird as companion   kin   their one true north

doubts subdued. Story lights the lantern

Together   they plot possibilities of away