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Secrets
by Caroline Carver
“long-eared owls roost secretively in willow thickets” RSPB diary 2002
They hide their secrets
in willow baskets
which my grandmother has woven for them
I saw her down by the river
picking withies and long reeds
to be bleached by an autumn moon
her fingers curved
by the slow separation
of knuckle and joint
and spindled, like the twiggy legs of owls
under their brushed fur feathers.
Orange and yellow eyes catch light
as they fall from the branches
into a long slow arc of flight
oo-ooh-ooh they say to my grandmother
and she smiles to herself
unlike her they do not show their age
and she is not telling oo-ooh-ooh
as their wings beat deep and slow in the slow night