~

the couplets cometh ( htemoc stelpuoc eht )

…

out the river’s mouth
from a seaward south

bounds between the leaps
like a salmon creeps

or a bear awakes
where the air is snakes

from the thicket’s throb
& a chancer’s gob

springing as a lamb
as the damsons jam

on the sodden earth
kicking clods of turf

rocking like a chair
in the western air

horsing with a wheeze
on an eastern breeze

or a northern wail
scree beneath the veil

where the crow’s a dove
pairing like a glove

from another time
in the life of rhyme

so the poets pen
of a pickled then

…