Trilobite, Dissected
our world is maps laid over maps
chapters of fossils with lost endings
rivers making chimes of stones
drown us in language
open ribcages, pygidia abandoned
meals gone extinct
we are passed hand to hand
a grip that never fully surrenders
memories of sediment
a page of shale, a sheet of slate
in the layer cake of eons
I am exactly here – pressed between
the second evolution of wings
and the first mouth to speak god as a verb
Pygidium (pl. pygidia): The posterior body part of certain arthropod species, as well as the extinct trilobite.
Dan Wiencek is a poet, critic and humorist who lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and whose work has appeared in Sou’wester, New Ohio Review, Timberline Review, Carve and other publications. His first collection of poems, Routes Between Raindrops, was published by First Matter Press in 2021.