do spirits have memories?
is this why birds now are
falling from the sky?
that’s what must be
happening here – shadows
no different to reflections
we’re close to opening that wound –
the one that closed before it healed,
it’s ok, saved photos will open it
again, free the ravens to fill the sky
we’ll sew it back together again
in patches, mending as we go
like New York minute when I couldn’t see
the sky, Liverpool has shadows
where there was sun before
(the distressed blackbird ever-calls
from a tree on Grove Way)
that expansive Edinburgh sky
ever-folds into a dark storm cloud,
birds of prey hover, leaves are
about to fall and
there’s nothing we can do at all
to tend a wound that closed
before it healed
except to open it again
let it breathe the air