Ladybird
by Stephen Kelly

I put a ladybird in a jar once and
I was a big game hunter
and carried it home past Mrs. Millet’s,
A lion’s head or elephant’s foot.

I stopped

and like some beast it flit its wings,
they shuttered as a thousand cameras.

Eyes were yellow, I'm sure,
I panicked, screamed, dropped,
and ran three houses home.

Oh Mrs. Millet! It was me who dropped
the jam jar that you probably swept up, forgive me.

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Ladybird by Blaise Harvey