A ladybird is walking
across my dark green woolly hat
and my hair is a vine plant
running down my window sill shoulders
and my sprouting chest is an unwelcome weed
and my nostrils are puddles
and I have a damp soil beard
swallowing all sorts of dead
and my skin is thin scum over a garden pond
and I can hear the croaks of jolly frogs
jumping and jumping and jumping
across lily pad freckles.

© Carl Burkitt 2020