The first time I saw

A slow worm, a glow worm an ant carrying a leaf my father throwing beer over my mother my mother crying a hoopoe in our garden by the sea a crested newt swimming upstream my son close to death my daughter fly from her trapeze my other daughter cradle her new-born a scorpion in my tent in Italy a badger shuffling ahead of me at dusk a hare staring at me a fawn in a rainstorm my mother no longer alive.