Songbird
I’ve never heard you sing before he said unaware that as he spoke his hand was tightening round her beak and every time she tried to speak she was forced instead to swallow the jagged notes whole he said I’ve never seen you fly before he said I’d like to see you fly polishing the secateurs he’d used to clip her wings with as she swallowed each bitter bile-tasting unborn cry He said I love you She didn’t reply