spotlight – Robin’s Nest

The Fish

by Marianne Moore wadethrough black jade.Of the crow-blue mussel-shells, one keepsadjusting ash heaps;opening and shutting itself likeaninjured fan.The barnacles which encrust the sideof the wave, cannot hidethere for the submerged shafts of thesunsplit like spunglass, move themselves with spotlight swiftness,into the crevices -in and out, illuminatingthe turquoise seaof bodies. The water drives a wedgeof ironContinue reading “The Fish”

Last Words

by DANNIE ABSE Splendidly, Shakespeare’s heroesShakespeare’s heroines, once the spotlight’s on,enact every night, with such grace, their verbose deaths.Then great plush curtains, then smiling resurrectionto applause, and never their good looks gone.The last recorded words tooof real kings, real queens, all the famous death,are but pithy pretences, quotable quotationscomposed by anonymous men decades later,never withContinue reading “Last Words”