songs of robert the cutler

the way a line
will dog-leg away
all at once
its whole length
an escape from intent
a seeking strength
to make us re-imagine

green waves in flower
tulip towers
a thistle's thrust
spring onion lust

the march-hare's check
at a sudden beck a
leveret's wheel
and clean pair of heels

antlered swerves
through losses of nerve
a vixen flash
into oak or ash

last-gasp sways
of a hind at bay
a lurcher's dart
at the butcher's cart

scut-bequeathed spoor
across valley and moor
a kink in a trail
down a treeless dale

marrow moans
from anonymous bones
the downcast ram's horn
weathered and reborn

the salamander's mute
assent to the newt
an adder's aside
to the cut and dried

grassroot views
of mercurial shrews
the otter-pair's chase
through watery space

psalm of ocean
in an elver's motion
stickleback dreams
amongst river-gleams

a tadpole charge
at the millpond's marge
all elbows, frogs'
dumb-show of dialogue

what the sinuous snail's
signature reveals
swans winging south
from the moon's mouth

hammer and tongs
into cutlers' songs.