Double Golden Shovel
polar exploration midnight sun where bears
have clout a succession of expeditions either
gone against the odds extinct
or protected learned
to crouch white wilderness camouflage
better paw over black snout because
when men guns hungry your
home cubs threatened escape is
meltwater smashing through pancake ice or you
have to swim miles on a floe to
hide 1897 three men North Pole in
ice-free hydrogen Eagle which
is portentous fateful flight it's true to
say balloon changes in the
density of gas crash stranded diaries of
the life drifting ice killing an animal
doesn't survival desperate matter
when eat bear raw hope for the
world preservation ice itself
is a reminder how close we are to drowning
Morgue the Merrier
Post-mortems exhaust;
takes energy to slice.
Suppress your bile. For clean-cut flesh
insist: stainless steel saws, blades to thrust
with precision into the purple.
Autopsy delayed, rely on frost.
Now lay out for evisceration. Defrost.
Checklist: spotlight, exhaust
fan, scrub suit, mask, gloves. Don’t let purple
bruises hypnotize the knife: slice,
incise for answers. Draw the “Y”, thrust
through slabs of lard and flesh
to pubic bone. Peel back, clamp flesh
and skin flaps shriveled by frost.
Choose round tools to attack joints, thrust
split ribs apart. Hold your breath, exhaust
the cavity, bag the viscera. Take tissue slides
of diverticula in jellied purple.
Proceed to preservation. Replace purple
organs in order. Rearrange flesh
with cotton packing, a baseball stitch. Splice
the cranial cut. Boost frost.
Prepare a casket pillow. Stuff exhaust
passages with gauze to stop seepage, thrust
the body back to refrigeration, thrust
that biohazard box down the chute, sluice purple
stains and disinfect. Autopsies exhaust
so remember: a cut colon’s foul flesh,
your best friend is frost,
think twice before you slice.
If you have the slightest
doubt, put your trust
in the coroner to open an inquest, and in frost
to keep those purple
samples safe. Make sure that flesh
is covered for viewing. Exhaust
every resource: thrust, slice,
freeze the facts. This lilac flesh had a life.
Dissect! Exhaust!
Lights Out
Save the wolves, the stranded bears,
Release trapped birds, don’t hunt the air,
Save sharks, fins sliced for greedy lips,
Save turtles caught on fishing trips,
Stop poaching, stop the big-game show,
Protect the forests where you go;
You know that time will not stand still,
We must act now before (until)
The world grows darker. Try to see
Extincts too late: for them, for me.
After/Thought Literary 