Rob Galpin

Dark and wet the grass.
Glaze of night rain—
the under-harrying of slugs.

A glowing congregation on the benches.
Massing beneath,
a morning roll-call of ne'er-do-wells:

Whited spittle-creamer.
Birthmark earth-spreader.
Perfect-but-for-single-peck.
Rat bait.
Red face, brown tongue.
The forsaken baker.
Processionary-probed pearmain.
Blushing Jilly.
Spider-held scrum-half.
Poor little Pippin.
Sour-suckling-for-cider.
Left-in-a-lump.
Red Ed.
The wasp, the fly
and the lost bottle of vinegar.
Old-Jeb-at-the-gate.
The scab.
The Spoils of Poynton.
Broken-backed Beauty of Bath.
Squirrel-bit.
Fell, destroyed.
Heartlessness-unheeded.
The waster.
Unslugged, the incorruptible one—