Slow Worm
And here you are slid from the rain
under my door, “s” -ing along the cool
checks in the hallway. I’ve had slugs
silvering the skirting, a hissing squirrel
cornered by the stove, even a mouse
that made his den next to the cat food…
but never any beast with such elan:
Cleopatra’s necklace, a serpent,
burnished from the Nile, slinks
across the mosaic of my day.
Nick McGaughey lives in Wales. He has new work in Poetry Wales/The London Magazine/And Other Poems and Stand. He performed two sets at “Poetry and Words” at the Glastonbury Festival in June.