NaPoWriMo Prompt
Impractical Taxidermy
A poem that began with a book title.
The book “Practical Taxidermy”
leads naturally to query
where practical coincides
with stuffing animals (dead)
in search of statues like life.
Further, if taxidermy
and practical were uttered
together, is it possible for
taxidermy, impractical to be?
A pear skin stuffed with Tic Tacs.
A millipede, each minute leg intact.
A soft banana slug captured in slime.
An egg sac, each teeny spider a mime.
A trio of earthworms in gordian knot.
A fossilized trilobite stuffed in a pot.
A weeping willow that billows in silk.
A black cow’s udder, caught mid-milk.
Water striders, high-fiving mirrored twins .
Fighting fish in a tussle, amid swirling fins.
Turns out, I’d slap down a hefty fee
to see taxidermy — impractical — with glee.
A lesson to learn: sometimes the opposite
of stoic pragmatic is just what we need.
