City Dwellers by Charlotte Fong

 

 


 

Charlotte Fong is training to become an English Teacher, whilst experimenting with writing poetry, flash fiction, and short stories. She has recently been long-listed for the Bath Flash Fiction Prize and had poetry featured in Young Ravens Literary Review. She lives in Lancaster, UK with her husband and enjoys frequent visits to explore the beautiful nature and scenery of the Lake District.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

City Dwellers 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Open wings glide home. The beak has a sure sense

of the north westerly, catching a free ride on Atlantic

lifts. Follow contrails into familiar stratocumulus, spy

 

rivers below leading towards the forest through towering

buildings, grown taller. Rest on what was once an aging

oak, now a window-box growing mint and parsley. Gathering

 

twigs blown to the grey blanket underneath, begin to assemble

your refuge on the thirteenth floor. Food appears overnight:

fruit and seeds with confusing undertones of other mammals;

 

the search for damp, open earth made suddenly less critical. Open,

stretching young arrive, safe here with no claws to snatch or bat

from side to side. They grow, gentle and windswept in equal measures.

 

Take flight over feral voices and growling engines, lift your new

bodies over the rush. Airtight and weaving, abandon your temporary

home until you feel spring breath once more on the crosswind.

 

Charlotte Fong

 

 

New Build Poems and Stories