|
Vestigial Recapitulation |
Phylogeny recapitulates ontogeny
The gill slips of embryology
Heart beating forward into life
And sometimes I, too, feel a tad vestigial
My own heart caged like a rat in ribs
A tetrapod, loping from Walmart aisle to aisle
Lunging for a musk melon
With my interlocking spinal spurs like a T-Rex
Probing the fish tank of what-I-once-was
With my five-digit frog hands
Fogging up the glass, and when I’m out of gas?
Primate pelvis holding together my umph
I galumph on over to the lounge chair
Triumphant with my cherry passion fruit iced tea—
One limb draped (ooh-la-la!) over the arm rest—
One bone on top and two below like the flipper of a cetacean
I breathe through two nostrils—I’m not a crustacean
I scuttle like a lizard beneath the red dawn
And sigh, hissing yesssssss like a (my tetrapod brother) snake
copyright 2019
Anna
Cates |
