Live Encounters Poetry & Writing, Special Edition on Humour June 2024.
The Western Swamp Turtle, poem by Martin Langford
The Western Swamp Turtle
The Western Swamp Turtle
has a Bodhisattva’s smile.
It knows everything
that can happen in a life –
the torpor of sunlight
on mud-infused water,
the slope for a good rock,
the slippage and bounce of mere twigs.
It can remember
the focused exhaustion of mating –
might go there again –
but just now it’s happy
to let the sun rest on its forehead,
to grin as occasional bubbles
go pop! at its neck.
© Martin Langford
Martin Langford is the author of eight poetry books, the most recent of which is The Boy from the War Veteran’s Home (2022), published by Puncher and Wattmann.