Once More, This Is the Beast

Little, nasty animal,
Clara Mucci said, sing-song
In her Italianate lilt,
Little monster on the road,
The opossum that she’d seen

Run over by a pickup,
More than thirty years ago,
An incident dined out on
And used to entertain kids,
Complete with accent, many

Times since. It had a tiny
Sharp a teeth. Little monster.
The origins of monsters
In whatever is unknown
But is evidently real.

The origin of sharp teeth
In phosphate acquisition,
Permitting piercing hard shells.
In shallow seas of language,
Extra genetic, extra

Neural, extra cellular
Storage of information,
Between the monsters, floating
On the waves, needles of light
Biting tiny, sharp a teeth.