Quiet Psalm of a Ditched Snail – a poem by Helen Freeman

Quiet Psalm of a Ditched Snail

Coiled and confined,
she retracts her mole-like jelly eyes
on the end of her tentacles and topples off 

into a ditch. 
She looks stunned, top-heavy.  
Do you think she knows her shell is a masterpiece? 

A powerhouse whorl 
to uphold her? A lime-crystal mantle 
to cloak her? A conch horn of song to deliver her?

She rights herself 
and struggles out, then sets off 
with a whistle, painting the moist earth silver.

Helen Freeman started writing poetry whilst recovering from an accident in Oman and got hooked.  She now lives in Durham, England and has poems published on sites like Visual Verse, Ink, Sweat & Tears, Clear Poetry, Ground Poetry, Open Mouse, Algebra of Owls, Red River Review, Barren Magazine, The Drabble, Sukoon, Poems for Ephesians and Ekphrastic Review.  Instagram @chemchemi.hf