Blue tits were discovered

pecking the foil of milk bottles

 so that they could drink the cream.

My grandmother swore to it

but these days we have polythene containers.

 

The stereotypical owl is meant to be a wise

and clever animal, but the one I got, the one

I invested in as a pet is a useless old codger,

no more a companion than a dead lion skin

on the floor in front of the fireplace.

 

The bird down the street talks to me, she says

she hopes to go back to college next year, asks me for

a light, and what my name is. I don’t tell her

and look away from her druggie eyes.

Tomorrow she can talk to someone else in the smoking area.

 

 

 

© Noel King

Biog:

Noel King was born and lives in Tralee, Co Kerry. His poetry collections are published by Salmon: Prophesying the Past, (2010), The Stern Wave (2013) and Sons (2015). He has edited more than fifty books of work by others (Doghouse Books, 2003-2013) and was poetry editor of Revival Literary Journal (Limerick Writers’ Centre) in 2012/13. A short story collection, The Key Signature & Other Stories was published by Liberties Press  in 2017. He has had short plays produced at Cork Arts Theatre, and the Kenmare One-Act Festival.

 

 

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Noel King, 20 Park Lane Mews, Denny Street, Tralee, Co. Kerry, Ireland.

Phone: International:  + 353 667 184765 Local: 0667 184765 email:kingnoel@eircom.net