An Experiment on a Bird in an Air Pump | Ela Begum Kumcuoglu

(after Joseph Wright of Derby)

Candlelit,

Though I’d wanted it dark –

– A smack in the face

Of Science,

Then a Nothing Ever Again.

The fetters of the Skyless

Sound like gunfire

In my mouth.

They have me –

– Mouth and might and tail.

I am the weeping Cheek

Of the Earth,

Mourning

The Being Born –

– This is nothing

If not a song of surrender.

The wingless only fly through

Destruction.

A yearning,

Then a burning –

– And though I’d have had it

With decency; I’d have

Put up a Real fight; and though

Then, I might’ve had

Reason for my pride,

I recognize the Release –

– They almost look like trees

Trying to Unroot

And fly away too.

Ela Begum Kumcuoglu is a Turkish writer and student living in London, published or to be published in Wildscape Literary; Obsessed with Pipework; the Genre Society; and Moonday Magazine.