1 minute read
Mynahs at dusk
from Hours and Days
by Marian Webb
By the town hall in Chapel Street in the plane trees towards sunset a huge noise of birds crescendoes.
I look up. Bare branches cross-hatch a colourless sky and the shapes of birds, vague and globular, swim like bubbles in liquid celluloid.
Advertisement
The trees, the lit sky, the tumultuous birds the size of apples — but grey, with dark birds' heads that flutter and hop like turbulent leaves twittering and screaming — hold me in twilight as the crowd sweeps south down Chapel Street beyond the twinkling signs.
15
