No 3 from Uses for the Thames

“Feather !” cried the Sheep …
Lewis Carroll, ‘Through the Looking-Glass’

 

The test was to dip
the needles into the dark
of the swallowing mirror

and by pulling to row
the weight of your own small self
through the silvery jam of its surface

trailing behind in your passing
your very own tale, knitted
extempore from light

and then to lift them,
feathered, ready for flight.

first published in Tideway (Two Rivers Press, 2002) from The Night Tree (Carcanet, 2004), © Jane Draycott 2002, used by permission of the author and the publisher

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