The serpent's shiver

 

THE SERPENT'S SHIVER

“Suddenly something came out of the land, some cool shiver of Spring” (Neil Gunn, The serpent)

Reading, I think of

how we come to look back on

a spring with words like

"the optimistic first half

of" some past year, sigh implied.

Reading on, I see

Tom and Janet would never

speak so between them.

February morning tea.

The story darkens its coils.

You read this poem

after I've finished the book.

England and Scotland

another tale uncoiling.

England gambles on its past.

The Scottish novelist Neil Gunn lived from 1891 to 1973. The serpent was published in the 1940s, and you'll have to read it to find out who Tom and Janet are.

The poem was my entry in the 2019 Neil Gunn Writing Competition, run by the Neil Gunn Trust and High Life Highland. It has now found publication in issue 109 of the poetry magazine Acumen.