Riverware
 

In the soft caramel-gravel clarity of river bed

sugared by barley-twist ripples

a colony of ducks comes close to us;

their wet velvet head feathers half-upturned by breezes

are tight-gloved buttoned by jewel eyes

a sybarite spectrum of heads

nameless depthless hues of

lapis-lazuli emerald peacock mackerel blue

a purple gone green against the slate slopes of the weir,

while there off centre on raised river bed slabs

cleaving to a backdrop of dried grasses bleached

to a peachy straw & peppered by rice paper ellipses of honesty

a brown dappled hen-duck stands stock-still resolute

staring modestly, ignoring the still travelling dandified gentry

with their crisp white plumb line collars, while scumbling ripples

burnish her webbed toes & ankles a flaming orange

against the bluish stones, as if to say, first admire my footwear

as if this market town had flung down its wares even to the river

and still the ducks came jostling circling swerving for attention

laying silken glove on glove colour on colour

imploring buy, buy, buy, buy me...
 

Rita Carter

Bridge over the Teme at Bringewood Forge

Consider the snowdrops by the Teme

Peaceful by wild water from the Welsh hills

Yesterday's Radnorshire snow

Tomorrow's silt on Severn meadows

A subtle colonisation

Pyrrhic even

Certainly downhill

All the way

Here squeezed gently

Between wooded banks.
 

In the snow

Prints of badger

Deer and Potter

Poet  and poacher

Intentions clear to the educated eye
 

To us.....marks of place and season:

Snowdrops on river banks
Deer glimpsed

The sky

Pinned to earth

By trees

Poems in low sunlight

No wordly dressing needed

Richard Beaumond