Some things take a long time to die by Beth Brooke

There is a creature trapped

inside my neighbour’s chimney -

a jackdaw maybe.

She tells me there is nothing

she can do to get it out, the

stove plate fused shut.

I stand there in my hallway,

hear its desperate scrambling,

the futile fluttering of wings.

There is nothing I can do

but listen, make its fear my own.

I long for it to give up the struggle

but the days pass and intermittent

noises tell me it’s alive.

I hate to think of it trapped there

in the small and sooted dark,

thirsty for the sky and clean rain.

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Beth Brooke is a retired teacher, born in the Middle East but now resident in Dorset. Her work has appeared in a number of online and print journals and her debut collection is due to be published by Hedgehog Press next year. She is @BethBrooke8 on Twitter.