#413

My Taxidermy is not the best, But it will do by Kate Debolt

Mohammed Awidi, on his zoo in Khan Younis, Gaza

Even if the formaldehyde weren’t homemade.
Even if I hadn’t needed

to walk through fire for needles,
for mounts, for glass eyes - no one knows

how hard it is
to stuff an animal that might have died

hating you. First day the ceasefire
let us through:

the lions carved kitten-size.
The porcupine starved to an empty anemone.

The baboon’s cage filled with corpses
he refused to let us touch.

But the worst were the monkeys,
the ones we found wide-eyed, looking up,

clinging to the earth
like they might fall off.

Tonight we will walk the grounds
together & brush aside

the small ghost paws
that tap our ankles. Tell me:

an animal is a body all the way down –
it only knows what the body knows,

it cannot see God washing his hands.
It cannot see the villagers steal

from their homes, with water-pails,
with long, long ropes – & it cannot hope

to see them again, or for that matter wonder
why don’t they come back. Recommended listening: Shoz Almozlino - Habiluim Links of the Day: Somesuch Stories Haunting Fine Art Photographs Exploring Sleep Paralysis Crap Shakespeare Pixelated Versions of Everyday Objects