Most Read... Rebecca WattsThe Cult of the Noble Amateur
(PN Review 239)
John McAuliffeBill Manhire in Conversation with John McAuliffe
(PN Review 259)
Patricia CraigVal Warner: A Reminiscence
(PN Review 259)
Eavan BolandA Lyric Voice at Bay
(PN Review 121)
Vahni CapildeoOn Judging Prizes, & Reading More than Six Really Good Books
(PN Review 237)
Christopher MiddletonNotes on a Viking Prow
(PN Review 10)
Next Issue Stav Poleg's Banquet Stanley Moss In a concluding conversation, with Neilson MacKay John Koethe Poems Gwyneth Lewis shares excerpts from 'Nightshade Mother: a disentangling' John Redmond revisits 'Henneker's Ditch'
Poems Articles Interviews Reports Reviews Contributors
Reader Survey
PN Review Substack

This poem is taken from PN Review 116, Volume 23 Number 6, July - August 1997.

Frog Chronicle Matthew Francis


1
These two round objects which are known as tomes
produce the gollum, which is passed through here
along the inkling, which as of course you know
is the same conduit used for passing water.

Before this happens the inkling must be aroused.
It extends to at least two and a half times its normal length,
which is called an allusion as I expect you knew.
He was bald and sweating with embarrassment.

And so we saw ourselves as doctors see us,
a pant-shaped diagram of butchery red
and the sawdust-yellow walls of organs. Yes,
we'd had an inkling. Tomorrow we'd do women.


2
Arousal must take place in both parties
before the frogging, which is the pushing of
the alluded inkling into the bermuda,
...


Searching, please wait... animated waiting image