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.