Carol Ann Duffy - Thetis lyrics

I shrank myself to the size of a bird in the hand of a man. Sweet, sweet, was the small song that I sang, till I felt the squeeze of his fist. Then I did this: shouldered the cross of an albatross up the hill of the sky. Why? To follow a ship. But I felt my wings clipped by the squint of a crossbow's eye. So I shopped for a suitable shape Size 8. Snake. Big Mistake. Coiled in my charmer's lap, I felt the grasp of his strangler's clasp at my nape. Next I was roar, claw, 50lb paw, jungle-floored, meateater, raw, a zebra's gore in my lower jaw. But my gold eye saw the guy in the gra** with the gun. Twelve-bore. I sank through the floor of the earth to swim in the sea. Mermaid, me, big fish, eel, dolphin, whale, the ocean's opera singer. Over the waves the fisherman came with his hook and his line and his sinker. I changed my tune to racoon, skunk, stoat, to weasel, ferret, bat, mink, rat. The taxidermist sharpened his knives. I smelled the stink of formaldehyde. Stuff that. I was wind, I was gas, I was all hot air, trailed clouds for hair. I scrawled my name with a hurricane, when out of the blue roared a fighter plane. Then my tongue was flame and my kisses burned, but the groom wore asbestos. So I changed, I learned, turned inside out - or that's how it felt when the child burst out.