‘Rewilding’ by Jackie Taylor

I published this during lockdown. It was sent in for the Solstice Shorts Festival (which had to be held online) with every story or poem responding to the Southwell poem, Tymes goe by Turnes. As soon as it arrived, I emailed Jackie to thank her for writing exactly the story I had hoped to see, without knowing I hoped for it. Her protagonist lives an isolated life that becomes more and more remote during lockdown until she cannot remember how to speak, and lives only for the birds that come to her garden, and then, of course, the world comes back… The second publication was in Jackie’s collection, Strange Waters. I loved this story so much, I wanted more, and so the collection came about.

First published in Tymes goe by Turnes, ed. Cherry Potts, Arachne Press, 2020, and collected in Strange Waters, Arachne Press, 2021