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Moa Egg – Painting and Poem

By October 1, 2021No Comments
Moa Egg by Karen Caruana

Moa Egg

look how it moves

clumsily

how it moves me

with its slow reluctance

to be in the same space

with me

how it never turns its back

but never looks directly

how it protects its space

flapping

there is a nervousness beneath

its wings, like a mumbled song,

a hurried prayer, escaping;

how it flits and furrows

filling a space almost smaller

than its entire body

how it prepares to lay an egg

furtively

trying to place it where I cannot reach

how it closes the air around itself

zipping the molecules

shut.

Moa Egg was first published in The Blue Nib issue 41 in 2020, and then in Stranger Intimacy (Stamparija Reljic, 2020). The commissioned painting was made by Karen Caruana.

Miriam Calleja

Author Miriam Calleja

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