Thrimblenorton enters

An empty shunned house,
Front door smashed to flinders.

So, in two bounds
He’s away up the stairs,
In one leap

He’s tightroping a banister,
Tail a ramrod, eyes black,
Whiskers thrumming

But then hears a faint sob.

It runs down walls,
Billowing cobwebs
And one mouth is soon

Joined by others:

Dust whirls rising in columns
Outline she-humans sawing
The air as clouds shape
Into babies forever just
Out of their reach: so in one
Leap he’s back down
On the stairs, in two bounds
He’s back out the front door,
Pausing only to empty his bowels
On a fallen sign lettered in gold:
Sisters of Mercy Mother and Baby Home.

Kevin Patrick McCann
Photo Nick Victor