Clear Water Between Us


Lean-sharp salmon pulse upstream,

fiery darts of urgent seeking,

channelled like quick, silver bullets

shot through moving mercury.

Not the fat farmed fish

thrashing in cubes of gridded sea-loch,

these are braids of magnesium light

stretched tauter than a kingfisher flight.


These are meteoric, purposeful gleams

mocking the spark-gaps of anchored stones.

Unable to outdo these liquid comets

this stream keeps its mere steady hurry.

The throb of their swiftness is all,

their very motion is a momentary arrival.