At the Featheredge
We came across a fledgling blue tit, one Friday group outing.
With no sign of a nest or mother, the kind man from Meath
scooped him up in sure farmer hands, whispered to him
of St Francis and the freedoms of heaven,
all the way back to Grangegorman.
At the day unit, I unlocked the scissors.
They stabbed supervised holes in a cardboard cage,
cotton-lined the walls, whistled endearments,
till the 5 o’clock bell called them back to the wards.
After a weekend of three-hourly feeds,
I delivered Anto the Tit to a refuge,
much to the disappointment of the rescuers,
who hoped he might stay with us,
caged, safe
Eilín de Paor lives in Dublin and works in services for people with disabilities. Her poems have appeared in The Stony Thursday Book, Banshee, Abridged, Raleigh Review, and Dedalus Press’ Local Wonders. Her chapbook, In the Jitterfritz of Neon, a collaboration with Damien B. Donnelly, was recently published by Hedgehog Poetry.