Fussy Little Forms: “Slough”

~ qbit

A “Slough” is the poetic form of a muddy bog, or shedding dead skin, or stuff I say to my wife as we drive.

Sloosluffsloe
Small dark globose astringent fruit of the blackthorn
ZoroasterCan you say “Wickaboxet?”
Come visit the museum of spores
Mucilage
The tater-tot world of the arcane
Fetch the fiddle Mary!Vacant lots: vacant are our lots in lifeMadman mud man, grave digger with a trowel for your mouth
Drear, drear, the sheep do shiver in the rain
Willows weep as weep they must, their draped shrouds prepare for us the wayYarmouth
Mayfly may be the maybe-fly could would should fly, the can-fly, can’t-fly, will-fly, won’t-flyShooby-Do
For Slough Sunday

The Sunday Muse

25 thoughts on “Fussy Little Forms: “Slough””

  3. I love it when you go all weirdo like this! This is fun. This might interest you: while reading “A Shropshire Lad” in preparation for this prompt, I learned that “keeping sheep by moonlight” was an expression that meant hanging in chains. Those Brits, what’re ya gonna do with ’em?

    I knew you wouldn’t disappoint, and you didn’t!

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  5. “or stuff I say to my wife as we drive” … Ha 🙂

    “Madman mud man, grave digger with a trowel for your mouth” … Oh my.

    Love this:
    “Mayfly may be the maybe-fly could would should fly, the can-fly, can’t-fly, will-fly, won’t-fly”

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        1. I talk nonstop nonsense, but more to my children than my husband. I try to limit my word usage with him; otherwise, his ears will fall off from my constant yap-attack.

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  8. As Shay says, lots of fun here in a seriously fascinating poem that doesn’t take itself at all seriously. Sometimes words are just words, but they always are also little suitcases we unpack in our brains, looking for the meaning, or just wearing them out of habit. Here you bring the luggage and do a Da Da dance with strewing the contents. I love the Sloo Sluff Sloe across the top. I believe it is actually pronounced “slauw” like bough, but English spelling makes little sense any day. Enjoyed much, and my sympathies to the spouse. 😉

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    1. Ooh, that made me go down the dictionary rabbit-hole! Both sloo/slauw, but check out the “state of moral degredation.”!!!

      noun (1)
      \ ˈslü , ˈslau̇, in the US (except in New England) ˈslü is usual for sense 1 with those to whom the sense is familiar , British usually ˈslau̇ for both senses \
      Definition (Entry 1 of 4)

      1a: a place of deep mud or mire
      bor less commonly slew or slue \ ˈslü \
      (1): SWAMP
      (2): an inlet on a river
      also : BACKWATER
      (3): a creek in a marsh or tide flat

      2: a state of moral degradation or spiritual dejection

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      1. Spiritual dejection makes sense, but moral degradation?–down in the mud, perhaps. I know the word mainly from the phrase ‘the slough of despond’ i.e., someone being in one–and who knows what archaic bit of writing *that* comes from.

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  11. Ha interesting tidbits of the mind. I can relate to the piece about the willow as they do weep, it is the sway of the tree.

    The riddle of the May fly… will it…can it… in its short span of the cycle of life.

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