Augury

The fish faced into the current,

Its mouth agape,

Its whole head opened like a valve.

You said, 'It's diseased.'

A pale crusted sore

Turned like a coin

And wound to the bottom,

Unsettling silt off a weed.

We hang charmed

On the trembling catwalk:

What can fend us now

Can soothe the hurt eye

Of the sun,

Unpoison great lakes,

Turn back
The rat on the road.