Mike Shannon
Indentations
Slowly stampeded
Gently constricted under
a submerged tree
in a river
that has only rolled
backwards
after the impulsion of
an earthquake
That brief shift
in thought -
left shunted on the shore
where only a birds
quick steps could notice
the incongruity
but doesn’t anyway
looking for redirected food
with the short lived
luck that chance
has brought to
long lived webbed feet
An indentation of a handprint
created from a stumble
may only suggest
another personal impression
of the moon
with an accompanying lather
and teething pain
only experienced as
an infant
trying to
express itself
through watershed tears
as stick
finds sand
Imprints from a birds
quickened pace
or the more encompassing
erasure of surf on sand
erosion -
little valleys
shadowed between hills
Stampeded either way
growth ebbing when
an impediment intrudes
Old oaks bend
and then dip
before falling into
the salt rich sea
and then find latitude
for the rolling sand
The tide worn deconstruction
of young knees grinding
half remembered conceits
of coral trinkets
and sheltering from rain
under gables
surrounded by a youthful chuckle
that is
subjugated by
the indentations
that are worn by the
steady action of grit and time
Page(s) 158-159
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The