Issue 15
Whim
Susan Richardson
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Restless
It begins as a quiver, a twitch
in the black-tinged tips of her wings,
an itch which is quickly relieved
by preening.
It moves to her feet, weaves
its way into the webbing, hovers
in the v-shaped space of her tail.
Soon it permeates everything,
inhabits a layer beneath her skin
like permafrost under the tundra.
As she moults, she hopes the feeling
will go, but each fresh feather she grows
needles her to leave,
before darkness comes in to land
on a brand-new roost of snow.
Her need now beats its wings,
lifts her high,
propels her against
the speckled shell of the sky
til she bursts
into somewhere
bigger.
~Susan Richardson
Note: "Restless" is from Susan's longer work "The Longest Flight."
Susan Richardson is a writer and tutor of writing based in Wales. Her poetic
drama, Two Of Me Now is published in the Bloomsbury Heritage
Series. She is a 2003 Pushcart Prize nominee. Website. Email.
© 2004 by Susan Richardson. All Rights Reserved.
© Copyright 2004 by Cayuse Press. All Rights Reserved.