Friday 24 August 2012

Fringe Month - Steven Porter


All Creatures Great and Small

Edinburgh,
where it all began for Darwin.

Tonight,
a queue wraps itself
around the Old Town streets
like a boa constrictor.

People are talking
like zoologists,
about tapirs,
sloths, howler monkeys
and feral cat exhibits.

The crowd creeps
into the Assembly Rooms,
cymbals crash with
a note or two of
Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide.

Camille hops around
like a top-heavy kangaroo,
slips into Dorothy’s shoes.

Whalebone straitjacket,
leopard-skin knickers  −
all over in a flash.

Beams creak under
the weight of architecture
and morality.

We are evolving.

Officially,
the Kirk would
not have approved.

*     *     *

Steven Porter was born in Inverness in 1969 and lives in Spain. He has published 5 books with his output including fiction, short stories, memoir, travelogues, reportage and sports writing. His second collection of poetry – 16 Poem(a)s – is a bilingual English/Galician edition, published on Merseyside by Knives, Forks and Spoons Press. The author’s blog can be found at http://stevenjporter.wordpress.com

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