Karen Knight


Bird Man of Alcatraz

To live in Stroud's prison
wired aviary,

and be fitted for a foot sling,
light as a lift-off,

to roost on his finger
as he rocks your compound fracture,

to be one of his etchings
in the Roller Canary Journal

I'd break my flight wings
for some of his avian psychology,
to put the fire back into my feathers.

The infra-red hue of canary wings
still warms up the chill of Death Row.

But best would be the wild taste
of the seedling greens he grew through
wishbones of light, and a spoonful
of river-bed silica sifted through
sixteen inch mesh and washed down
with his finest cod liver oil.

What a remedy.


Once A Jumper

Always the springboard flip before
Diving from the highway overpass.
Doctor says once a jumper, always.
In dreams I dive into bitumen rivers
Climb out of the pitch and sway
To the rush of my Doppler effect.
It’s so amniotic.
Only a few more leaps, then Niagara.
No nets please, I’m the waterfall.

-both poems previously published at Mad Hatter's Review


Survey

No-one smiles
in this part of the city.
Sharp things silvertail
in back pockets.
Pedestrians run
the red light, it keeps
the chrome bulls charging.
No one wonders snow
onto the mountain.
There are no seagulls
for children to throw
this / their sadness to.
How quickly sadness
can blacken a red
balloon.


Detached

I've been clingingto this boat for hours
yelling until my teeth drop
but no-one comes
The wind is around 39 knots now
tide running the wrong way

The oars broke
She stood up to get the lifejackets
She weighed 165kgs
She had a heart attack
and fell overboard
I tore my trapezius muscle
trying to hold her
I let her go
I let her float away
The different colours of her skin
as she drifts in the rising sea

-both poems previously published at Stylus Poetry