The Listener

Ancestor
of the night
awakening to darkness,
grasslands and farms.
Tree and crevice dweller,
gazing from church steeples,
nesting in barns and hollow spaces.

Submarine flyer,
air surfer to the fence post,
the hunting-by-sound perch,
to listen…to listen.
Head always still and
ears that can hear
the heartbeat of a mouse
– even under snow.

The stoop to eat prey whole,
regurgitator, pellet producer.
Pale plumage
and eyes dark as Black Holes
set in a snow-white face,
this Ghost Owl with
feathered edges
that flap and glide
in silence.

Field forager, woodside wanderer,
with eerie screech
turning into the dawn.
Ancestor,
retreating into a new day.



Leigh Cook

16/06/2023