Where will the owls go now?
Poet: Emily White
Native English trees at the top of the garden
giants
where owls roost
handkerchief in torchlight
cry when you get out of the car
and know you are home.
when I came back from the edge
where refugees were slumped in corridors of Krakow airport
I want to know where the owls will go.
where blue yellow flags flashed from screens
where we counted the drive-time to the frontline and
Did they know what was happening?
where we scrolled for pictures of people
rescuing pets
— that gunman
with his fish in a square bowl, cat on his back—
Were there nests?
when I came home
and saw you had cut down all the trees
Emily White graduated in 2021 from Oxford University Department for Continuing Education with a Diploma in Creative Writing.
She has published short fiction with Claret Press and the Parracombe Prize 2020 and was shortlisted in the 2020 Wells Literary Festival. She had two poems longlisted in Myslexia Womens Poetry Competition 2021 and won the 2021 Brian Nisbet Poetry Prize. She is a member of Huntly Writers.