River Debris

FinsburyParkCarrots

One footless shoe in the river, weed bearded.
Wet-through foolscap with hand drawn rulings.
Faint regimens, one phrase discernible.

"Failed her, failed them."

A plaid suit jacket. Keepsakes but no gold watch.

And in the fob, a sodden book of days
Logging incubated eggs that never hatched.

EvilToasterElf

fools·cap
n.
Chiefly British. A sheet of writing or printing paper measuring approximately 13 by 16 inches.
A fool's cap.


fob
n.
A small pocket at the front waistline of a man's trousers or in the front of a vest, used especially to hold a watch.

A short chain or ribbon attached to a pocket watch and worn hanging in front of the vest or waist.
An ornament or seal attached to such a chain or ribbon.

I like this piece a lot fins, the ending really nails down the mood of the poem

"And in the fob, a sodden book of days
logging incubated eggs that never hatched."

It's an amazing image, but maybe a little cluttered, I can't be sure because I've been looking at it for a few minutes and I can't come up with any way to cut out a syllable or two and keep the essence of the line, but that's just me, weed-bearded is a phrase that really struck me as well, it's the first time I've seen it, I don't know if that's something more common in poetry over the pond. Beautiful poem though

FinsburyParkCarrots

I made up the weed beard. LOL don't go looking for profound references with me. Most of the time I'm making things up as I go along.

EvilToasterElf

FinsburyParkCarrots wrote:

I made up the weed beard. LOL don't go looking for profound references with me. Most of the time I'm making things up as I go along.

well listen, I had to go to dictionary.com for two of the words, I don't think it's too much of a stretch to think sometimes you're knocking around some traditional Irish phraselets that never make it over to our Dan Brown, Stephen King side of the pond. We're a bunch of culturally castrated dunces over here