Why I had to make an emergency dash to the vet with an owl in the back seat

This week, poet and artist Frieda Hughes recounts a frantic dash through the streets of Swindon in search of treatment for her pet Eurasian eagle owl, Eddie

SWINDON

Sometimes the nearby surgeries are not enough

For a Eurasian eagle owl with blistering eyelids

That have furrowed the brows of countless vets in blue coats

Despite qualifications. I packed him with care for the three-hour drive.

The orange headlamps of his saucer-eyes

Were visible in the rear-view mirror

As he watched the wintering trees speed by

Sideways beyond the window, his body bracing for the corners

And the multiple roundabouts that string the Swindon suburbs

Together like beads on an asphalt necklace.

The Magic Roundabout so tightly wound

It caused the woman on Waze to deliver her directions

As fast as bullets. But Eddie has hope in the hands

Of this new expert; blood taken from his wing,

Injection in his neck, eyes examined, weighed for later

Like a 2.7 kilo turkey heading for a Christmas table

And a roasting time. He did not complain,

But stood, or sat, or lay wrapped in a towel, vertebrae straining,

Almost subservient, until he was done. This feathered giant,

Travelling the roads of Britain in search of a cure.