Poems

Evolution

Zoological Museum, Cambridge

Adorable eastern woodrat. Frantic jerboa.
‘It is likely that the taxidermist
had not seen a live viscacha.’

The aye-aye’s beanie-baby eyes look wrong,
glass too full. So, too, the tiny, bony
come-hither of its crooked finger, thin

as Death’s. Likewise the ears, barely attached.
These, a sign explains, are woodpecking mammals.
The world’s largest nocturnal primate is

actually pretty small. All relative,
I guess. A relative of the potato
-coloured West African potto, plainly assembled

reluctantly out of unsaleable carpet samples,
albeit hardly flattered by the dirty
...