“A bird not having enough feathers to fly; an inexperienced or youthful person”

Unfledged and hungry,

She skulked in the darkness.

Hidden from the

Warmth of streetlights,

Scooped beneath

Awnings and

Shrouded by the

Shadows of skip bins.

Her skin ran cold,

The blood beneath

Dry and useless.

On her neck,

The pinch of a new wound,

And a mess of drying blood.

She stumbled down

The stretch of tall,

Brick buildings

That flanked

Her left and her right.

Weakness overwhelmed,

Her need for sustenance

Almost as deafening

as the thumping pulse

that had drawn her there.

A heartbeat,

Not her own,

Called her to feast.