Quagmyth

Gory stories unmoor 
pouring pain, pilling 
at the feet, quilting,

stilting, filching dirt
from river squirts,
and turtles pile on

turtles -- pond scrum,
bum hearths, mirthful,
parrying, burying,

anchor-wilting 
as an anxious 
lung, flung across

the ribcage, brung
about by words,
narrated incautiously,

taken in otherwise,
and pausing as the
edge creeps closer

to the feet-lined sand.