Smithereens Press Chapbooks 'Zero at the Bone' by David Wheatley | Page 19

MCALLISTER
I beg your pardon.
MCDONALD
Girly-man, eh.
MCALLISTER
What crap.
MCDONALD
Deep in the blood throb our rapist roots.
The Greek gods too, mind, liked a spot of rape.
Leda and the swan, Daphne giving
Apollo the slip by turning into a reed.
MCALLISTER
The wind among the reeds... All is forgiven,
my caveman friend, if you’ll just go make the tea.
MCDONALD
Bitterns, when they’re feeling threatened, will freeze
and imitate a reed. They might even sway,
sway gently from side to side in the breeze.
MCALLISTER
‘As the bitore bombleth in the mire...’
MCDONALD
‘Bombleth?’
MCALLISTER
Chaucer.
MCDONALD
You never see them: they never
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