Birds and Mice
There are birds in my garden
and they are not singing for me
they are black like my moods
and when they are dead they keep making noises
there are mice beneath my feet
and i follow them about the house
till they hide from me;
I don’t shy from them
white, brown, perfectly small.
my mother says ‘this is my daughter,
she knows about bird songs but I myself am fearful of mice’
Fiona Donaghy was born in Dublin in 1974 and moved to Norwich in 1999. She has a Diploma in Creative Writing from The UEA and a degree in English and Cultural Studies from City College Norwich. She has been writing poetry for twelve years.