When he was small Leonardo
Formed a scene upon a shield,
From crickets, fireflies,bats,
Lizards, glow worms, serpents,
And delicate wings of butterflies.
No one knows how like it was
To the scene which Homer set
On Achilles' famous scutcheon.
Surely not the picture Auden
Said Hephaestos set there?
Did he create an early grace,
Perceived already in the river,
Under cataract, cloud and fell,
Already seeking young to find
And shape the writhing coil
which lay beneath a waterfall?
©Terry Hodgson2020
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