HUMPHREY “HUCK” ASTLEY

Humphrey ‘Huck’ Astley is a poet and musician based in Oxford, England. He graduated as Master of Studies with Distinction in Creative Writing from the University of Oxford in 2016. His works include the three-part album and stage-show Alexander the Great: a Folk Operetta (PinDrop/PRSF, 2013-15), The Gallows-Humored Melody (Albion Beatnik Press, 2016), and WI5HING WELL (Rain over Bouville, 2020). His writing has appeared in various publications including Agenda, The London Magazine, Poetry London, and The Punch. He is founding editor of The Crank, and an occasional critic. | twitter @aboredlittleboy

THE HIDDEN NUMBER

If Adam had followed the snake out of the garden

eyes to the ground     a shifting line in the sand

provoking a kind of sign     a fluid arrow

preferable to the brand-new puzzle branded

onto the sky     would he eventually

witness the creature’s awful shedding of skin

And Eve     beside him     mapping the territory

onto a red-raw opened mind     would she

stoop to pick the snakeskin up and against

her better judgement ask if they should eat it

Then how long could they keep this up     their own

vestments breaking     falling to the ground

like so many vows     how long before they’d stop

and demand the snake reveal the hidden number

of times it might perform that violent marvel

that demi-miracle of casting off

Discarding another death-shroud     would the serpent

take the time to say     I do not know

Read Humphrey’s work and more in Solum Journal Volume I.