house clearance
with filled skip outside
old carpet
© Rachel Green September 2025
freshwater mussels in an almost-still
canal; the only motion within sight
slow and languid; a stickleback's gill
beneath the onslaught of a parasite.*
Raised on TV shows of Saturday morns
where pearls were treasures of the palest hue
and lauded under Tarzan films in jungles born
we thought the cleansing mussels oysters too.
Alas the bullies that I thought my friends
who introduced me to these get-rich schemes
had dark motives for even darker ends
and pushed me under foetid water; screams.
Sunshine on rippled water, from below,
as far away as angels as to Hell I go.
© Rachel Green September 2025
*Digenean trematodes
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