A Strange Case

There’s something floating in the Brayford Pool.
Two swans, raw recruits, investigate. As a sub-plot,
one showboats the other. The pen ignores him.

Two high-viz guys in a high-viz launch circle,
decide it’s possibly wood, not a body, outside their jurisdiction.
They pitch up at the wharf and go for noodles.

A boater in a narrow boat motors in,
one of those specialist detectives with another life.
The object has sunk without trace. We’ll need divers now.

The swans return with a forensic swan,
though not a good one, as he has no bow tie.
They’ve wasted his time; he wants his lab and some Roquefort.

I watch this from a solicitor’s window;
she may not have seen this lucrative opportunity.
We sit and talk of house repairs, tax implications.

In the deep waters of the Brayford Pool
a mystery unfolds. Will we have to drain the basin?
Where is a cormorant when you need one?

 

 

Simon Williams has eight published collections, his latest being a co-authored pamphlet with Susan Taylor, The Weather House www.indigodreams.co.uk/williams-taylor/4594076848, published in 2017 by Indigo Dreams. This is also touring as a performance show. Simon was elected The Bard of Exeter in 2013, founded the large-format magazine, The Broadsheet and produced the well-received PLAY Anthology.