There among fragile homes
of wood, card, nylon,
is Fatima with her bird.
7 years and 7 months
of never being sure.
“If he dies so do I.
But he has kept me alive, 
comes everywhere with me.”

She grips the cage,
the bird her heart flutters.
He is her family, her friend.
perhaps he senses, shrieks
at threats from above.

She will never let go.
Even night-time he’s there :
a guide for her dreams,
a flight from her nightmares.

She knows all about his cage.
Wishes she could open its door,
let him fly free a while
like she once did
running along the beach.

There among the lost and fleeing
she sees the flames rise 
then ash fall like feathers 
of a huge bird scorched 
alive as it tried to soar. 

Mike Jenkins is a retired secondary school teacher who lives in Merthyr Tydfil in Welsh Valleys. He co-edited Red Poets magazine for 31 years. His latest books are For Gaza (Red Poets, 2024) and, as editor, Yer Ower Voices! (Culture Matters, 2023), the first ever anthology from Cymru of dialect poetry in English and Welsh.

Poetry submissions to thursdaypoems@gmail.com