Bumble bee

The first one in was a bumble bee

Crawled in the window & he stared at me

With lips as thin as you not smiling

Not wide enough for a lie to hide in

The first I saw was a bumble bee

& he told me I'd wasted your precious time

Hitting out at the walls of a tiny mind

He worked his way right through the skin

This thin skin I slumber in

The first I saw that bumble bee

& the next one in was a dancing frog

He had a song for each one I had lost

& he bent his legs around the hours

At the foot of the bed where I had soured

The next one in was a dancing frog

He said, "You never moved, you never danced

Never rode a melody into chance

Never sang one song true enough

To call the birds back to the loft

You never moved, you never danced"

& the next one in was a stipple-back fish

The next one in was a stipple-back fish

He said, "I would grant you three wishes

But I'm not in the business of giving out wishes"

The next one in was a stipple-back fish

& the last I saw the stipple-back fish

The last I saw the stipple-back fish

His gills filled up with the dust

Of a room that's not seen anything much

The last I saw that stipple-back fish

& the last one in was a winter moth

The last one in was a winter moth

Like me he'd nothing to say

He laughed at the fish & fluttered away

The last one in a winter moth

Frantic & flapping & brittle & soft

The last one in that winter moth

Like me he'd nothing to say

He laughed at the fish & fluttered away

The last one in that winter moth