Dan Giancola
Vivarium
You & your kids slip
in one at a time, zip
the fly behind you,
push through the screen
that circumscribes this Eden.
You pause in a mesh-
draped vestibule
to keep a single jewel
from drifting free,
then move in, carefully
where a novice lepidopterist
pins pupae evolution paints
like hot rods to a makeshift
cardboard nursery. She spouts
pleasantries & canned facts
but the paper fires
Nabokov desired
dizzy you with bright,
off-kilter flight,
pilots learning to fly.
They'll scribble arcs
from bloom to bloom
a fortnight here, doodle
from milkweed to rue,
drill bee balm for nectar.
A swallowtail boutonniere,
proboscis rolled
like a garden hose,
lights on your shirt.
You & your brood peer
through a cheese-cloth
where a luna moth
calm as a philosopher
waits to mate
starvation. Eyes
on its wings beg
for the silence haunting the hour
you wait for. You've never
been so sure. Your offspring
romp like flames among the flowers.
in one at a time, zip
the fly behind you,
push through the screen
that circumscribes this Eden.
You pause in a mesh-
draped vestibule
to keep a single jewel
from drifting free,
then move in, carefully
where a novice lepidopterist
pins pupae evolution paints
like hot rods to a makeshift
cardboard nursery. She spouts
pleasantries & canned facts
but the paper fires
Nabokov desired
dizzy you with bright,
off-kilter flight,
pilots learning to fly.
They'll scribble arcs
from bloom to bloom
a fortnight here, doodle
from milkweed to rue,
drill bee balm for nectar.
A swallowtail boutonniere,
proboscis rolled
like a garden hose,
lights on your shirt.
You & your brood peer
through a cheese-cloth
where a luna moth
calm as a philosopher
waits to mate
starvation. Eyes
on its wings beg
for the silence haunting the hour
you wait for. You've never
been so sure. Your offspring
romp like flames among the flowers.
Page(s) 8-9
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The