Ritual To Ensure My Safe Return Home
In the days before I leave I speak to the cat,
explain that I must go away, specifying
the number of days that she is to be left in charge.
I tell her that she is being given a great responsibility
to maintain the equilibrium of the place.
This means she mustn’t kill anything, especially not
the robins, who are certainly the spirits of ancestors
and must be allowed access to the garden at all times.
It’s possible that jackdaws are also ancestors and
I praise her for never having tried to kill one;
I also mention that I love her and will soon be back
from this other place that I know she wouldn’t like
because the smells would be strange and the hunting
grounds too unfamiliar to be fruitful. Anyway, I say,
I am expecting her to be sitting on the bookcase
by the window looking out for me at the precise
time I expect to arrive home, providing the robins
have willed it and the trains are punctual.
Beth Brooke lives in Dorset. Her pamphlet, A Landscape With Birds, is published by Hedgehog Press. She tweets as @BethBrooke