birds knit my ribs together by Phil Barnett

 


 

Phil Barnett has had a lifelong passion for the natural world. In particular for the area of countryside outside his front door in South Lancashire  – “The Patch”, where he walks on most days. Phil finds beauty in the ordinary – wonder in the everyday. He expresses this through music, painting, photography and more recently writing prose and poetry.

 


 

 

             

             

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

           

 

 

 

 

 

 

birds knit my ribs together

 

 

 

 

birds knit my ribs together 

wrapped the corpse in feathers

song embalming; mummifying

 

wrens sipped cuckoo spit

spat it to a thimble

 

stirred in berry and honeydew

dripped the tincture drip by drop

 

a woodpecker bored my skull 

in trepanation

 

drummed a hole and wasps flew out

 

goldcrests’ needle calls put punctures

all along the kidney’s line

 

swallows’ flightlines skywrote my ill

when thrushes sang it out loud

 

a woodpigeon listened while

I told it secrets

laughed when I lied

 

 

Phil Barnett

 

 

Stories

Poems