When we awoke, we found a great curtain of linked metal rungs had been lowered to earth from the sky. The chain mail drape connected land and sky and ran as far the eye could see, across the ocean in ... [+]
John Davies' poem, "Preserving the Last Starling," is in Short Circuit #05, Short Édition's quarterly review. An exiled Scouser in Ireland, John’s work appears in Maine Review, Rosebud, Pedestal, Southword & ‘Influenced’ (Muskeg Press). Twitter: @johndavies1978.
The bird containedwithin a bone-melded cagetries to breathe:a bubble of air rises,a pump slowly concertinas;water drips steadilyas anaesthesia into a bottomless dish.The dangling oval glassbanishes all the birdimagined itself before.Fluttering it climbs,climbs to the high perch;nestles there in the boxmade for dreaming,and the entire cage thrums when it sings.