Night Bird
(a painting to be viewed by artificial light)
moonlight
dead-colouring
a blank expanse of canvas
silence
but for the crackling of verdigris
slug trails glisten
on black foliage
on scabrous slab
wing tips
brush against grey slate
talons wet with scented ink
print hieroglyphs on thick green moss
she wakes
washes with rainwater
listens to the lark ascending
she paints a nightingale
in a bower of belladonna
her hand beaded with moisture
reaches in among dripping leaves
snaps a curling stem
slides her brush over sappy strings
the nightingale begins to sing
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