Platypus
by Rose Kelleher
Odd duck, this hatchling, neither fish nor fowl,
reptilian furball with a beaver tail
and poison spurs. The unaccustomed eye
boggles — blinks — attempts to classify,
to cobble up a rule from the exceptions
and make him this or that. But what he’s not
is neat; all asterisks and explanations,
his whole existence one big caveat,
a hedged bet, a pet theory with a wrinkle,
like nothing else, like all things, never simple.
Rose Keller’s Bundle o’ Tinder at Waywiser Press: http://waywiser-press.com/kelleher.html
