More like an excited buzz, an audience at the theatre,
than a croak. There are so many of them:
green, soft-bellied and singing their desire,
unashamed on the banks of the Nile,
this night.
The young travelling gentleman twitches
beneath his mosquito net and wakes with the noise.
Tonight she will come to him, frog goddess Heket,
smooth and cool and amphibious.
If he welcomes her properly then all his dreams
will fall on fertile ground; and she –
— she will grow and leap into the future as always,
in desire and fecundity, to the delight
of the numberless chorus outside,
cantillating their applause.

[Cathy Bryant worked as a life model, civil servant and childminder before becoming a professional writer. She has won twelve literary awards, including the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Prize, and her work has appeared in over 100 publications including The London Magazine, The Huffington Post and The Rialto. She co-edited Best of Manchester Poets vols. 1-3, and Cathy’s latest collection, Look at All the Women, was published by Mother’s Milk Books in 2014. See more at www.cathybryant.co.uk, and see Cathy’s monthly listings for financially-challenged writers at www.compsandcalls.com]