…I close my eyes and see my mother bearing darkness in her crop. As if hypnotized, I raise my head, open my beak and sup from the regurgitated endlessness of night. From bill to bill the murk of it all flows like treacle. Dear, I am writing to you now to tell you this: that I could never have imagined it; that feeding on death could feel so intimate! Dear, there is nothing at all between her beak and my heart — she has taken me bareback. Dear, if you wish to save me, come quickly! Come now!

arranged on a table
the thin, pitted bones
of a Winchester goose

*In medieval London the brothels of Southwark were under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Winchester. The prostitutes who worked in them were known as Winchester Geese.
Ekphrastic haibun based on ‘Guatemala No.7 (Dying Vulture)’ William Congdon (1957)

Reka Nyitrai & Alan Peat