It’s been a long day, folks, and we were challenged by NaPoWriMo to write a poem with long lines – seventeen syllables long, to be exact. To my mind, this calls for a particularly long otter, so I’ve taken a look at the Giant Otter of the Amazon. Which, of course, is a particularly long river.
There are a lot of fabulously interesting facts about Giant Otters – for example, if they stood up they’d be as tall as my mum. There are some distressing facts about Giant Otters – for example, just the noise of human activity in their vicinity can stress them out so much they kill their own pups. None of this is in the poem, but you should totally check them out here.
The path of the Amazon is
a dilly-dallying belly-dancer, juggling half-moons hip to hip
a slipshod silt-filled seam, stray-dog yellow, stupefied vein of sunlight
an unravelled fingerprint, a concertina folded from jaguar tongues
a velvet ghost road four hundred and eleven thousand otters long
Kirsten Luckins 