Poem: ‘The Longest Day of the Year’

THE LONGEST DAY OF THE YEAR

Lucky gull chicks on a city roof
take food from their parents and snuggle for warmth;
for them, life has begun as well as it could.
The flightless chick who fell from its nest above
and is abandoned by its parents
on a hostile gull family’s roof
is shut in a large, bright, open room
and soon learns that fear is a nail
that fixes the whole being to a hard board.

The lost chick can hear its family above
and calls to them, looking up to a place
it cannot reach and from which no helps comes;
flight is weeks away. The enemy adults attack
and the refugee huddles in a corner
watching the privileged chicks eat well,
all because the spots on its head
are not in the correct pattern.
Sometimes it cannot resist any longer
and rushes forward to try and share the food,
but is driven back by sharp, flashing beaks.

The fallen one must somehow hang on,
surviving on forgotten scraps
until its feathers are ready
and a new phase of life begins.
The prisoner walks around and around,
the will to live fighting the hunger,
but it cannot escape for now, no matter what.
Living in terror in this rooftop hell,
every day is the longest day of the year.

Feature Image: Magda Ehlers