- Michelle
A few more words on reading
I've bound myself in reams
Paper, thin under folded crease, keeps the words in – just.
But a buttress of words soon buckles and thrusts
as a cobra – punch drunk – grasps the been*.

* been is another word for 'pungi', an Indian folk instrument made from a dried bottle gourd. The kind you might expect to see a snake charmer play to hypnotise a cobra.