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This poem is taken from PN Review 276, Volume 50 Number 4, March - April 2024.

Two Poems Duncan Forbes
Otters

I’ve never seen them in the wild
or moving in real waters
but now our lucky daughter
tells us she’s seen otters.
First there was a tail
then ripple on the river
and looking at each other
Was that, they said, an otter?

The sun shone like a moon
mirrored on new year river
and then they saw three heads
breaking the surface silver
somewhere above a weir,

V-shapes in the water
swimming towards a den,
...


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