Poet Furtive Karboys defies fate after an eagle’s flight whisks him over Guardian City – proving life’s possibilities are as vast as the sky.
Writer Furtive Karboys has declared himself “fully rested and raring to go again” after a bizarre set of curious events left the renowned poet “fearing the worst”.
The author of award-winning collection Catkins and Other Fluff has returned to his garret in the Gulch promising well-wishers to be more careful in future.
The slight 79-year-old retiree, famed for his stadium readings in his early career, found himself flying over Guardian City in his rocking chair after a mishap involving an eagle called Lirren he adopted from the zoo. Mr Karboys had brought home the sickly Lirren for what he assumed would be the majestic creatures’ final few days. Vets had given up hope that the elderly bird of prey would recover from a pulmonary infarction.
He’d cuddled Lirren, weak and frail,
A bird whose wings had lost their sail.
The vets had sighed, an end most sorry,
But Karboys saw another story.
Poet had taken up crochet
Lirren recovered and, sensing freedom, flew out an open window.
After retiring on the proceeds of his million-selling Catkins collections, Karboys had taken up a new hobby and he was crocheting ferociously at the time of the accident. His room had become a treacherous lattice of strands. The wool, which was wrapped round the trundles of the poet’s rocking chair, also caught on the claws of the resurgent eagle and the whole lot was carted into the air.
“I feel most tremendously silly,” he said. “I could see that Lirren was getting agitated and I assumed these were his last moments. I felt a sense of regret that nothing more could be done. But, in actual fact, a pigeon had flown past the window and Lirren, bless him, became suddenly revived for one last skydance. Next thing I know, I’m looking down over the city with Lirren above, strong as a youthful bird.”
Guardian City caught up in wild ride
The streets of Guardian City came to a halt as they watched the chair-bound literary star circle above. Eventually, seeing no end in sight and “resigned to my fate”, Karboys scythed the tether with a crochet needle and cut himself free.
“I told him that I shouldn’t be a burden and that he should dash for the clouds while he could. Life is short.”
Karboys plummeted 200 feet into the river, his chair keeping him afloat until he was rescued.
The tether snapped, the crowd did gasp,
As Karboys broke from fate’s tight clasp.
A chair-bound star, now soaring free,
Cut loose from all that used to be.
Lirren was last seen heading south, a dot on the horizon. Mr Karboys said, “I must confess that the whole venture has imbued with a new sense of what’s possible. Lirren refused to give up and I suppose I shouldn’t either. I have set aside my crochet – which is a young man’s game – and have begun a new work. ‘Eagle’ rhymes with ‘regal’, which is enormously helpful to get the juices flowing.”
Poet inspired to pick up quill again
Mr Karboys showed reporters a feather that Lirren had lost during his scramble to the window and vowed he would write his comeback poem with that very quill.
He told reporters, “Through winds that howled and skies askew, / The poet’s quill in flight renewed. / With whispers low, his words take wing, / A song of soaring, wild and ting. Not that. But like that. But not that.”
Many commentators have drawn parallels between the poet’s experience and his 1822 OT poem Wings Above The Waters which appears in his Greatest Hits compilation.
Mr Karboys resiled from the comparison saying, “That was an epic, this is what one might call, perhaps, an epic fail?”
Wings Above The Waters, by Furtive Karboys: A synopsis
In the quiet valley of Glistenreach, a mighty flood is foretold by the murmurs of nature and pamphlets. A bluebird named Lindle, known for his cheerful songs but frail wings, escapes the rising waters. However, below he spots the dread snake Syldriss stranded on a rock as the waters rise. Syldriss begs for help, warning that the flood will consume all.
Despite his small stature, the torrent’s fury and the clear threat from Syldriss, Lindle vows to save the snake, seeing all creatures united in the face of global calamity. The 480-stanza poem follows their perilous flight, as Lindle struggles against storm winds and crashing waves. Along the way, the two bond, sharing stories of their lives – Syldriss speaks of the earth’s deep wisdom, and Lindle of the boundless skies.
As they near safety, the storm intensifies. With his strength failing, Lindle manages one last burst of effort, delivering Syldriss to common ground. The sparrow, exhausted, his wings broken, his song silenced, is swept away by the relentless floodwaters.
In the aftermath, the floodwaters recede, and Syldriss, inspired by Lindle’s sacrifice, dedicates his days to spreading tales of the bluebird’s bravery and uniting the woodland fauna. Lindle’s story becomes a legend among the valley’s creatures and Syldriss himself vows never to eat another bluebird egg, except on special days or when he’s hungry.