Toad
By onemorething
- 715 reads
Honesty can be slippery,
sat on the left shoulder
of a witch, it pulses,
calls from hollows and
swallows moons, marshy,
emerging, to beetle
long-tongued
from twilights. Toads
are waking, mothered
by water, rippled, here,
the marshalling
of squat bodies, bent
on raining strings of beads
for transformation,
and I saw that even virtue
could sometimes
pool in quagmires.
I never know
what each new darkness
heralds - they are so full
of absence, graves
of sadness, and I have seen
how some hidden truths
can thrive in the depths
of lies, amphibious, cold;
a community of bones.
Image is from here: https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wind_in_the_Willows_pg_292.png#mw-jump-to-license
Also on Twitter: https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sumō-wrestling_toads_by_Hōson.jpg
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Comments
"Sat on the shoulder of a
"Sat on the shoulder of a witch" - a magical element to your "community of bones". Super, of course.
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You've written a poem about
You've written a poem about one of my favourite creatures. To some they may seem ugly and slimy, but to me they represent the burning desire to reproduce. I love the idea of squat bodies bent on raining strings of beads, reminds me of the frogs we used to have in the back garden where I onced lived, there was a well and each summer hundreds would appear, but as quickly as they came they would disappear. Of course this was back in my witchy days of loving nature...still do mind you.
Thank you for sharing this one. Very much enjoyed.
Jenny.
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:)
Your poems beg to be read aloud for their inner music, smashing stuff x
best
L x
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I'm dreadful at commenting on
I'm dreadful at commenting on poetry but I loved the pace of this and, of course, the imagery.
"Community of bones" is so good.
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