The coal tit, in her brief flight
from the feeder, slams
into the window garlanded with beads
and prayer flags to steer birds away
from the glass. Stunned, she clamps
onto the string of bright intentions
before tilting back. I think she’s a goner,
but it’s only a pause before she dips
beneath a blue square, her flight
re-claimed into the true field of sky.
Jamie O’Halloran’s debut collection, Ballast, was published by Drunk Muse Press in 2025. Her Corona Connemara & Half a Crown was 2nd place winner in the 2021 Fool for Poetry Competition. Jamie’s poems have appeared in Poetry Ireland Review, Banshee, Prairie Schooner, Southword, Crannóg and others. She lives in Connemara.
More work by Jamie O'Halloran
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