Not long ago, our very own Heather Cook graciously announced that her poem had been longlisted in the Wildfire Words: Every Breath competition and we were excited to read it and hear Heather perform it. We think the work deserves a much wider audience and hope that it may enchant you as much as it did us:

 THE SWARM

Fascination pins me flat against the wall,

wet washing hugged, dropped pegs at my feet.

This is no feathery murmuration,

no summer dance of silken butterfies.

These are pellets, hard, tight-packed with purpose.

***

Gathering speed bees rattle round the garden,

squeezing out its softly sighing breaths.

One minute? Ten? The whirling mass contracts,

escapes the centrifugal force, hangs high,

confers in pendulous indecision.

***

Then forty thousand entities agree,

move as one towards the cool damp woods.

The birds return. The cat emerges.

I gather pegs, shake out the crumpled sheets,

relieved but strangely sad to see them go.