Drawing by Judith Wolfe
HARRY JOHNSTON

Poem


      Evolution

      As the glaciers skid
      across the equator
      the elephants strew

      the savannah like
      broken radiators.

      Those pioneering

      pachydermd who tracked
      errant genes, sloughed tusks, shrank
      vast ears & legs, drink

      crisply & slide on
      tapered toenails to snort
      ice gnats from their niche.

      asking for it

      sauntering down to the sea's
      lip, she thrusts out her pelvis,
      flaunts her body at the cold

      wavels, shuffles nearer, nearer,
      & then recoils quickly with
      a coy smile.

      The sea extends

      a brutal paw & sweeps her
      away.

      Caw, the seagulls cry,
      she was just asking for it


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