Fig 1: Scissors in the Cutlery Drawer
I’m in the dark about Talpidae.
To this the light in the recondite bowels
of the refrigerator can duly testify.
I don’t know the duty of owls’ avowals.
I don’t know the sapience in papacy.
There’s favour in a pollice verso,
but then again, a fig for the derogatory!
I’m in the dark about espresso.
But how many elucidations and manoeuvres
in such cluttered, caliginous cloisters;
What are particles keeping from Hoovers?
What do shells mean to their oysters?
Fig 2: Tensile Strength
Rope is ordinarily formed by three
strands working together,
just as Christmas coitus has been
shown to aid productivity.
Coils turning ‘with the sun’.
The provision of plies
or yarns puts sons on yachts,
because there’s never more parenthood
than in a pulled tie.
Catlin can watch the cat creep in.
The tautline hitch
is both honest and yielding;
Saturday’s child smiles
at the jobcentre.
Fig 3: Lepidoptera
I’d love to know what
Lorenz made
of Spanish monarchs.
And whether a moth
in his lemonade
was as vexed by its conflux.