The Giant Rat of Sumatra

Is a phrase and a name,

And a collocation

And coordination

Of names, the common noun,

Rat, with its myriad

Of associations,

The proper Sumatra,

From the Sanskrit, Island

Of Gold, colonial

And exotic enough

To ‘20s British minds,

The adjective, giant,

Often given to lives

A bit large for their kind,

And the whole together

Suggesting all these things

At once, an adventure,

Something grisly, something

Monstrous, alien, cruel,

But in familiar ways

To the fans of Doyle’s Holmes,

Plus the thrilling promise

Of a tale for which the

World is not yet prepared,

All went to prove just that—

The story of the rat,

That is, of names like that,

Made from names, no such rat,

Tale of a name itself,

Its referents floating

In pieces in the minds

Of many memories

Habitually building

Half-lit worlds of ruins

From imagination,

A name that has a life,

Of sorts, or could perhaps—

The world’s not yet prepared

For a story like that.