Origami:

I held her in my hands

Folded her into a small origami bird 

I breathed life into her through words 

And watched as she began to fly

We sang lullabies into the night

And you’d dance to the tune that I hummed

But times are different now, the origami frame doesn’t shudder as it once did 

The record is scratched and worn, it’s almost unrecognisable 

We sit in silence 

Sometimes late at night I still hum softly into her ear

But she’s grown tired of dancing to my melody

And as the origami I shaped with gentle hands becomes unwrapped

The bird hidden behind the ink-splattered paper flies free from the nest I had tried to build for it.