Tongue
Before the twist
and roll of words
licked you into shape
you were there
a shell-less mollusc
sponging up
the sweet and sour
old silvery charmer
doorstep gossip
good and ill slipping from you
plump greedy suckling
rude urchin
love’s soft bed fellow
may you always be in the pink.
.
Stephen Bone’s latest pamphlet, Plainsong (Indigo Dreams)was published in 2018.