Very pleased to have my first acceptance from Black Nore Review. Thanks to editor Ben Banyard.
Speaking with the palaeontologist
was nearly impossible:
he was half-hidden,
curled up and surrounded
by layered samples,
a palisade of aged earth.
I appointed myself
as his research assistant,
proofread grant applications,
sprinkled adjectives,
added a thousand here and there.
He was as moody as most men,
his weathervane creaked.
His interest in football, horseracing
reduced to a fixation
with mud and grass.
The rare times he sampled me
he tut-tutted about saliva,
breathing rates, confidence
intervals; swore as the expensive
equipment disappeared down my throat.
After Lizzie Hawkins
Acacia Publications 