Museum
Attendant
A local bird banged
into the glass window
of the Museum of Exotic Creatures,
the sound quivered through the building.
It happened again on the Tuesday
and again on the Wednesday,
I shuffled in my hot uniform
wondering if it was the same bird each time.
I found it dead on the doorstep on Friday,
the Vet confirmed that the bend in the beak
could only be gained from ramming itself
constantly onto glass.
Noel King was born and lives in Tralee, Co Kerry. His poetry
collections are Prophesying the Past
(Salmon, 2010), The Stern Wave
(Salmon, 2013), Sons (Salmon,
2015) and Alternative Beginnings:
Early Poems (Kite Modern Poetry Series, 2022). He has edited
more than fifty books of work by others (Doghouse Books, 2003-2013) and
was poetry editor of Revival
Literary Journal (Limerick Writers' Centre) in 2012/13. A short
story collection, The Key Signature
& Other Stories was published by Liberties Press in
2017. His website is www.noelking.ie