Laurie Ogden

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The Birds

My friend bleeds on the picnic blanket.
She reaches down, expecting the damp
of a spilt tinny but feels warm, sees red.

We flock to cover her stained summer
dress, magicians releasing doves
from our pockets; tissues, make-up
wipes, a sanitary pad. We waddle,
a gaggle, to the park bogs.

From the sky perhaps we are one
bird, the drunkest a beak squawking,
two of us for wings, two for tail feathers
and her, the bleeding beating heart.

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LAURIE OGDEN is a writer and performer from Merseyside. Her poetry has appeared in various anthologies, Anthropocene and bath magg. She was recently longlisted for the Jerwood Poetry Fellowship and her debut pamphlet Humaning will be published by Flipped Eye this year.