paperboats

ISSUE SIX: NATURE'S VOICE
Jessica Boatright

Jessica Boatright

When the fire comes, I find myself staring into the eyes of a starling
she's finger-close shivering on the ashes burnt feet in a dance of shrieking
hurt a response to heat's indiscriminate ferocity then a shock of feathers
against my widened face also burning everything is burning these days I
squeeze her in to my clenched chest find your song find your song find
your song I cantate through smoke
the only elixir
to ease
the ache
the earth's lungs bulge
her smouldered body vibrates
against my breastbone
short gasps
pinned eyes
What did you do?
Who could answer that
with anything but
a peeled apology?
I squark my sorry-song as flames take us
sparks rising to a blackened tree line
into a wingless sky
Jessica Boatright

Jessica Boatright writes from a colourful house in Lincolnshire. She is founder of Raising The Fifth, a creative space for writers without children, and her microchap, Toucan, will soon be published by The Braag. Her poems are currently being haunted by apocalypse, especially linked to the climate emergency.

Jessica can be found on Bluesky: @oh-so-boatie.bsky.social

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