Excerpted from Rhys Hughes latest anthology of light verses, Animal, Vegetable, Mineral: Light Verse about Life & Other Heavy Things with contributions from writers across all continents, except from Antarctica, these poems stretch a little to reflect on the wonders of the universe, both past and present with perhaps, an evolutionary sense of humour. They make you smile, ponder and pause…
SPIRIT ANIMAL By Richard Temple I am cuttlefish: jet propelled cephalopod – self-defence with ink. MY NAME IS LUCA By Rhys Hughes My name is LUCA, I live on the second floor of a hydrothermal vent. I am the Last Universal Common Ancestor of all life on Earth today, including aardvarks, gibbons, walruses and jesters. I don’t live upstairs from you and you have probably never seen me before, unless you have a time machine and a very good submarine. My name is LUCA, I lived on the second floor billions of years ago. THE HUMAN RACE By Tim Newton Anderson The Human Race was started by Darwin’s gun Early runners were Kenyapithecus, Orrorin, Sahelanthropus and Griphopithecus Neanderthals fell out at the Pleistocene after a model run Followed shortly by Heidelbergensis and then by another - Homo Rudolfensis And so it was, by a stride, that Austrelopithecus won SWEET SABRE-TOOTHED TIGER By Rhys Hughes Sweet Sabre-Toothed Tiger, your mate has gone into labour. She will deliver eight or nine kittens like uncomfortable mittens and you will dance and drink cider to celebrate their arrival into the unspoiled ancient world. Palaeolithic cider, of course, because that’s all there was back then before the invention of gin. THE PLATYPUS By Roman Godzich A famous creature is the Platypus. Not noted for its song and dance. It still commands such great respect Despite the fact that so few ever get the chance To see one in the wild alone Or even in the tame with others. The Platypus stands sole, dear heart And far away from other brothers. Its culinary skills set it apart And not for what it does with mustard THE COMMITTEE By Doug Skinner A wolf, a horse, a rat, a goose, A frog, a rattlesnake, a moose, A wallaby, a flea, a stoat, A chimp, a bear, an eel, a goat, A kinkajou, a brace of quail, A pig, a crocodile, a whale, A hummingbird, a snail, a hawk, A manatee, a carp, an auk, A mole, a duck, a bandicoot, An octopus, a cat, a newt, A unicorn, a cockatrice, A badger, and a dozen mice Sat down in one tremendous ring And disagreed on everything. MANGO PULP FICTION By Maithreyi Karnoor Like vanquished kings and squished nothings The alphonsos, here, have no show Without the ring of the hype and bling Sweetly loved the mancurads grow Here pulp fiction has got its own diction Old uncle Albuquerque barbed in his garb When comes in for a juicy benediction Is redeemed as silly Albukar baab. FLOWER MAY MOON By Jeanne Van Buren Flower moon, I waited tonight to see you at your brightest shining down on dogwood blossoms and lilacs I need sleep couldn’t rest till I saw you like lost love. TRANSIENCE? By Mitali Chakravarty A butterfly flits from flower to flower sipping honey. A bloom is but a transient passenger that rides on waves of time. And yet, the poet who writes of the bloom and the butterfly looks for immortality in words. Will words change over eons? Will histories change? Will Earth remain? What are we but a drifting speck in the Universe?
PLEASE NOTE: ARTICLES CAN ONLY BE REPRODUCED IN OTHER SITES WITH DUE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT TO BORDERLESS JOURNAL
Click here to access the Borderless anthology, Monalisa No Longer Smiles
Click here to access Monalisa No Longer Smiles on Kindle Amazon International
Borderless 