Benjamin James Lancaster

cheep

scrape

cheepcheep

scraperustlescrape

rustle...

 

there's a bir—

SCRAPESCRAPESCRAPE

—a bird in my wall

and what I once found tragic

I now find

rustle

    comforting

 

it's been three years since I thought the noises to be

a whirl in the wind,

or a creak in the cracks

or a click in the clock

scraperustlescrape

but I know now it is

the whirl in its wings,

the creak in its beak

and the click in its claws

which have become so familiar

I'm scarcley sure I hear them at all—

cheep

rustlescrape

rustle...

 

in the beginning I feared

it would die inside

my wall

squeezed and squashed and squished and

      SCRAPE

barely able to turn itself full around

 

but

still it stirs

  rustle

still it sings

  cheep

still it suffers

     scrape

and these noises are proof of my flightless friend breathing inside the wall

   rustle...

of my fail-safe from solitude