Published in Dragon, UCW, Aberystwyth
Caracol
I took
my own small world
down to the shore with me today,
my rucksack on my back, with the water-
bottle echoing the slap of the sea, and my tools
for netting beauty neatly packed in buckled pockets.
Stones, shells, flowers, leaves, wave-worn bones, pieces
of broken pots, glass, man-made jewels that earth has made
her own, smoothing them, embedding them in her soft flesh:
all went to build the little home I carried, which
seemed to stretch outwards to the blue
of sky and sea, the green of hills.
And over all, like the lofty
apex of a cupola,
sang a lark.
'Caracol' is the Spanish for snail.
I took
my own small world
down to the shore with me today,
my rucksack on my back, with the water-
bottle echoing the slap of the sea, and my tools
for netting beauty neatly packed in buckled pockets.
Stones, shells, flowers, leaves, wave-worn bones, pieces
of broken pots, glass, man-made jewels that earth has made
her own, smoothing them, embedding them in her soft flesh:
all went to build the little home I carried, which
seemed to stretch outwards to the blue
of sky and sea, the green of hills.
And over all, like the lofty
apex of a cupola,
sang a lark.
'Caracol' is the Spanish for snail.
