The Birdman at Manchester Airport Makes His Confession
1962, Elisabeth Frink, Manchester Arrivals Hall
We are envious, full of longing,
incapable of looking
at the setting of a raspberry-peach sun
without desire.
We want to hurl ourselves
into its horizon, possess
the sunrise, the sunset,
the light and the dark offered freely,
to every living thing.
We watch hawks, held
in the cupped hands of the warm air
and cannot help but strap our arms
to crudely fashioned wings,
lunge at the heavens,
bold as Icarus.
Beth Brooke is a retired teacher. She was born in The Middle East but now lives in Dorset. Her debut collection, ‘A Landscape With Birds’ will be published by Hedgehog Press later this year. She currently has work in The Dawntreader, Obsessed With Pipework, and Marble journals. She Tweets as @BethBrooke8.