Sussuration of rushes,
deck-chair poised at the weir edge,
strepitumque Avon avari.
Valetudinarian gent,
kitted as for a safari
in pith helmet and white ducks,
has sat unmoving for four hours.
A cleg enters him by the nose.
Evening; chromatic thrushes,
territorial blackbirds' clucks,
purring from fumous wallflowers
and lilac, discordantly rent.
St John's men raise him from dank sedge,
stiff, still in a sitting pose.
- Peter Reading, A Departure, from Tom O' Bedlam's Beauties, 1981
Sussuration of rushes,
deck-chair poised at the weir edge,
strepitumque Avon avari.
Valetudinarian gent,
kitted as for a safari
in pith helmet and white ducks,
has sat unmoving for four hours.
A cleg enters him by the nose.
Evening; chromatic thrushes,
territorial blackbirds' clucks,
purring from fumous wallflowers
and lilac, discordantly rent.
St John's men raise him from dank sedge,
stiff, still in a sitting pose.
- Peter Reading, A Departure, from Tom O' Bedlam's Beauties, 1981