Like a hollowed hazelnut
your shell, round-mouthed,
thin-lipped,
is whorled
in spiral bands.
EVENING SCENE
Slugs, like fat black seals on sea-front snow,
crowd the drizzled concrete,
ebony clouds massing
in a sky of raindrop stars,
bistre blisters,
bronze brigades,
maroon platoons
and coral mobs,
slugs the colour of satsumas
sousing steps and driveways,
announcing saponaceous presences,
making themselves at home,
kicking back, and settling in for the night.
LADYBIRD
Like a blob of lipstick
splodged with mascara,
the ladybird catches light,
pedal-legging over leaves
in twilight rain,
like a small
spray-painted bubble.
Ruby globule,
sliding over stems,
a glutton for greenfly -
this domino-goblin
is a manic ember,
summer's gloss tar-toughening,
hardening this delicate diablo
into a pearly fist.