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.
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.