Hybrid

(in response to the work of Kate Clarke)

She sculpts

their profiles

 from clay

and plastic,

contouring

 cheekbones,

 inserting glassy eyes,

fixing false lashes.

Her retractable blade

slices the damaged 

hides. Tender vulnerable

fingers pin and stitch

stretch and smoothe 

attach a patchworked

head onto the creature’s body.

Human-faced fawns, bears, dogs,

antelope etc are posed

in the gallery. An invitation

 to reconnect…

I fall for the azure gaze of the zebra-man.

Each night now, I sleep standing up

and  dream of arid grasslands

and I’m searching for

my lover’s bullet-pocked

skull and his cruelly scattered

dreams.