196: Privileged

The birds come out again at midnight, twittering, whistling, chirping. Or maybe it is first now, emerging from the haze induced by off-white pages from which black scrawls leap like knights and runners on a board of chess, that my text-addled brain registers them — registers that there is something other than words, other than black on white and white on white and white on black and black on black and the pieces have shifted into their final position, a tableau where the king lies prone and the queen kneels before her pawns like a Shakespearian drama and something has happened. Something is happening. Something may still happen. When the curtain goes down and the tableau unfreezes, something may still happen. But by then I have opened the window to let the midnight air in and listen to the twitters and whistles and chirps.

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Written by: Katrine Hjulstad

Instagram: @katrinehjulstad

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Publisher's note: All poetry published with Eudaemonia Records has been viewed and commented on by our editors. Ultimately, however, we believe that it is the writer's decision to accept or reject any suggestions made by the editors, and therefore take no responsibility for the final product.