And the Dream-Magpie Speaks by Jill Munro

And the Dream-Magpie Speaks

This is for the superstitious few
who always triple salute the lone bird
pecking at a poet’s squashed roadkill.

This is for the girl of three and the boy of four
who lives up her lane. This is for the joyous two ─
they know that seven holds a secret never to be told,

that there are numbers for kisses and for wishes ─
who saw screens through black and white eyes
watching the hip flipside, the devil’s own bird.

This is for the stealers of gold and silver chains,
who know the edge of dreams lets lost loves
live on. This is for those who don’t believe
in dream-magpies or sorrow.

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Jill Munro’s first collection ‘Man from La Paz’ was published in 2015 by Green Bottle Press. She won the Fair Acre Press Pamphlet Competition with ‘The Quilted Multiverse’ (2016). She has been awarded a Hawthornden Fellowship for 2018.