A poem written in response to ‘Barn Owl’ by R.S Thomas.
A terrified mouse
in the corner of the window
Frozen stiff for half a century and more
Neither dead nor alive,
Year after year
Framed and hung upon my wall
I wonder if it knows it’s safe
from the barn owl caught in flight
by the artist’s brush and colours
All paled now, the owl’s visual silence
allows just me to know it’s there
Unlike Thomas’s night-strangled reality
my owl exists only on paper
A watercolour print by Jerry Waide
No scream will ever pierce this nightscape
These stilled soft wings ghost nowhere
Eerily stuck in mid-flight for eternity, it seemed
Brushstrokes trapped the potency of life
Time fades art to nothing –
Unlike the words of Thomas
Granting his owl immortality
Fifty years and more ago.
©Boakesey 2023
Boakesey Closs