elegy for a wild card

(under Creag Leacach)

 

crushed hare

flattened    comic hare

battened under snow

trodden under    hare as tread

                     hare as pattern

                     shattered skull

                     a jigsaw puzzle

                     of bones

 

skeletal

but best-dressed

in long furred mitts of paws

in mashed grey soil

colour of hare

 

knee joint

out of frame in bas-relief

the working hinge

of your dismantled

                     lang shanks

                     your named

                     bones

 

                     unbundled

                     out of joint

                     you’re disassembled

                     a flat-pack cartoonist

                     wild card

                     unbounded

 

from Uncommon Place, Shearsman 2019