Assembling
Blackbirds
After a day on the assembly line
my fingers stalk the black
and white keys, a conveyer belt
of minims and crotchets
that rhyme and chime with myself.
I play till I'm exhausted
and wake to stand again,
at my allotted slot
and compose in my head
to keep the blackbirds
singing at full throttle,
jostling for a place,
before the factory horn blasts
them clean off the stave.
Owen Gallagher is the author of four poetry collections (you can find them here); the most recent being Clydebuilt, published by Smokestack books in 2019. The Sikh Snowman, a children’s picture book, was published by Culture Matters in 2020 and his poem "Straight Up" was a Guardian poem of the week.
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