The Notebook

by Christian Ward

A community of fauna

lives in a tattered black notebook

wrinkled as an ancient oak:

A honeydew-green moth

curved like an arrowhead.

Pale white butterflies

bringing winter with them.

Pink Amazonian dolphins

who transform into people

at midnight. Hummingbirds

wearing every colour of the spectrum.

Various badgers, bats, bears, fish, foxes...

I feed them marginalia, scraps

and doodles. Sometimes, I see

them prying it open and my bedroom

erupts into a rave of wonders,

with even the moon peering in

to join in this temporary festival.