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Meditations on a Human Skeleton in a Museum (Sonnet) by Sasha
"This comunal animal is an omnivore and consumes anything digestible and
some things that are not. Vegitables, fruits, nuts, all vertebrates,
insects, shellfish, seaweed, alcohol and refined chemicals are all
ingested. Humans may be cooperative in their home territory but
frequently quarrel and have agressive attitudes toward those who
displease them."
-Plaque above a human skeleton in the Iowa City Museum of Natural
Sciences
Where the mad ocean breaks his teeth on stone,
what were you, man, when you fell down for dead?
Did you fish by the rock-pale shore, alone,
and slip and cut that canyon in your head?
Or where wild wind beats woodlands with his fist,
did that wolf next to you rear to attack?
What were you when the stone-cut arrow missed
and fanged teeth turned to daggars in your back?
What are you now, on display for your sons
who gaze at you, at what we are and were,
more naked than the playboy bunnies that stir
what you lack up and down? Whose money runs
your immortality?
Youâre dead, and still
youâll live far longer than I ever will.
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