Gabbery
dry in the hedgeskips
a dunnock sings to her nestling
shatter shatter stalls the rain
I can see a never-dry
in peach curl and grey mould
in the yellow-spotted leaf
while I mop the muck sludge
every dry battletwig
scuttles under tubbans
a dunnock in the hedgeskips
sings to her nestling:
cuculus cuculus
gowk in my hidland
gabbery in my hidland
o fierce cuculus
gabbery: jest hidland: secret place cuculus, gowk: cuckoo battletwig: earwig tubban: clod
Claire Crowther has published five collections with Shearsman. Solar Cruise was shortlisted for the Aldeburgh Best First Collection prize and received a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. Claire has a PhD in Creative Writing, teaches Creative Writing at Oxford University and is Deputy / Reviews Editor of Long Poem Magazine.
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