Ruth Padel

For Don and Chris who asked me to check the genitive of clitoris

not in Greek, which is easy, but Latin. I’m trying standard dictionaries

in three languages for that sleek particular satin- ness of skin,

homologue of penis, male, present in the OED

as rudimentary organ in

the female of many of the higher vertebrata, found in all and any Carnivora,

nub (you might say) of all those...

Watching him handle his life as a flame-thrower on pilgrimage for a key geological event –

say, volcanic eruption in snow, the frozen cocaine of church bells giving out under ice below Reykjavik –

or let’s say he’s something more animate, a very endangered species of tiger, the kind that makes himself go without silence,

not giving stillness, either, a chance...

... her once-red head locked In a tank of steam,         Her face foxing down into nothing Saying ‘All my beauty’s gone,’ Holding on

To your wrist, your bare arm, Through a shock hedge of wiring, spliced         Every which way to intestines And rationing herself to Seven Up (Plus morphine) on...

You find the manuals (‘How to Mourn’) on Borders’ Self-Help shelves. ‘Imagine this to be your Trail Guide in a park. Starting from Point Death, the paths available

are Numbness, Shock, Denial. They lead to Loneliness, Confusion; visions of black lorries dashing by on the M25 each with a hole in its black side

like the last piece missing from a jigsaw:...

She made the world’s first alligator from a spine    Of sugar-cane,

Binding the spring growth’s joints and knuckles,    Then rind-peelings,

The eyes from saffron, tail from the leaves and fruit    Of betel-nut,

Clay mould from a sheet of upish,    Squelching from sheaths

Of betel-nut palm:...