• Nigel McLoughlin

 

Eels

 

I

winter-water

the hollow

moan of fibreglass

seat grate against gunwales

 

II

put your hand in

all the way

and black ooze

of water moves

 

III

drabble to grab

constrict in a drizzle

of grip flux and clench

at wrists

 

IV

small ones nearly see-through

see through me

frogspawn eyed

and greening

 

V

tooth and muscle

a tail like feathers

of glass torques

pulsing arm jewels

 

VI

a slither of skivvers

that shiver me to stone

in their unbarrelling

waist deep

 

VII

silver shives of unshape

knotting and climbing

gathered in armfuls

back into the drum

 

VIII

time isn’t

but what is is

a flat hydrophobic

expanse I can’t swallow

 

IX

there is nowhere

blind as hysteria

a Hebbian indelible

silvered in

 

X

the winter of memory

forevers

is once upon a time

it lasts