I've been too busy to contribute for a while, but I'd be very grateful for
some input on this:
The slowworm's tail
*The slowworm, in common with many other lizards, sometimes sheds its tail
(which then wriggles convulsively as it dies) to avoid capture. It soon
grows a new one.*
Walking the sunlit path alone
she sees it: thrashing rhythmically, metronomically
on the stony ground - left, right, left, right,
coiling tightly, at once reversing.
Tapered tip, twisting over burnished bronze,
brushes a stump of blood and bone - arcs away,
to coil again in supple symmetry.
The newly shed tail, eyeless and mute,
discovers its own loss.
For impossible minutes she watches,
as it writhes through the dust at her feet
aware only that it is not whole.
What creature cast it off to save itself?
Which severed part suffers greater pain?
Where does it find such energy,
when its heart is gone?
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