Edward Clarke

Lydney Idylls

I

Scholar:           Mensa, begin a song from the future.
                        The estuary rises to our dangling feet
                        Since we have sat together bold with cider
                        On this high pier, like blackbirds on a totem
                        Three tiers above a pregnant bear with frogs
                        Emerging from her ears, a human form
                        And not a salmon on extended tongue.
Mensa:             What the fuck? The moon is on her back.
                        You’re pissed, you twat, pissed as a sparky newt.
Scholar:           The rain is in her nest above the Severn,
                        Obscuring half a shape that’s leaning out
                        To listen for our song, so you’ll begin.
Mensa:             We lived in Lydney
                        As if it was
Scholar:           By background sea
                        In Titian’s Bacchus
                        And Ariadne
                        A shore of Naxos
Mensa:             Lipped by the Severn
                        Our blue Forest
                        Of Dean a haven
Scholar:           Alfonso d’Este
Mensa:             Could not have governed
Scholar:           Our days focussed
                        On getting out
Mensa:             Of it, reclined
                        In hidden spots
                        Where we could find
Scholar:           The unkempt god
Mensa:             In Kwik Save wine.
Scholar:           It’s time we went, this asymptotic tide
                        Swirls at our trainers almost angrily,
                        I swear there’s going to be a heavy shower,
                        I felt a drop and now another two
                        Splashing the top of my unpropped, chilled spine,
                        I sense my soul’s a bay a wall could clear
                        Of silt and Lydney newly formed behind.
Mensa:             It’s going to piss it down for sure, let’s head
                        On back to town and see what we can do.