Scarlet Ibis, by Margaret Kiernan

Scarlet Ibis, photography by Philip Milne, 2011. (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) via Flickr.

Scarlet Ibis

Red birds turn dark as twilight falls, the day lost its colour, drifted into darkness. Beyond the town’s granite statues, birds fly homewards over the football stadium billboard, blazing neon above the field, where odd shoes lie like fish on a market day slab. Air filled with the smell of gunshot assaults my nose. In the south-west corner of the sky, Venus is rising to shine, beckoning wayfarers’ home to the night. I recall fields of gold, crops spread out across the land, flower posies in little girls’ hands, the smell of apples lying in the winter loft, safe. Morning will bring the feathers red again.

Margaret Kiernan

This prose poem was written in response to The Nursery of Ibis, by Daria Petrilli (Italy) contemporary. View it here.

Margaret is an Irish author and writes prose and poetry. She is widely published in journals and magazines and on-line, in four continents. She is a 2023 nominee for The Best of The Net Award for a second year running. She is listed in the Contemporary Women Poets in Ireland, at University College Dublin. Her background is in Human and Social Rights advocacy. She is an activist. She writes policy papers on Inclusion and Diversity. Her hobby is painting, in watercolour and acrylics. Her work has been exhibited.