Post-Modern Prometheus

By Christopher Gardner

 

I went to the zoo today

to see the first wooly mammoth born

in the 21st 肠别苍迟耻谤测.听

 

They had him

in a special, too-small聽

Enclosure

away from the other elephants

because they had tried to kill him.

 

He didn鈥檛 understand why.聽

 

Sitting in the palm-frond shade,聽

oversize ears fanning slow,聽

Deliberate

in the San Diego heat.

The kid next to me threw peanuts.聽

 

鈥淲hen they brought the second mammoth in,鈥�

The kid鈥檚 mother said to the wind,

鈥渉e gored it to death

right there.鈥澛�

She touched her breast bone, pointed out

the dull rust stain on the grass,聽

on the bars.聽

 

They didn鈥檛 understand why.

 

I think I understand

the look in his eyes.聽

The way he couldn鈥檛 look

into the water

because he was afraid

of his own skin.聽

 

The machine that birthed him

hadn鈥檛 told him

his name.聽

Gene-spliced not-clone

Hybrid Erlenmeyer flask beast.

 

Is that him?

 

鈥淚 hear they鈥檙e gonna sell them

to Disney World.鈥�

I wonder if he can hear it鈥�

Lonely tundra wind call trumpets鈥�

鈥淭hey鈥檙e gonna do the Thylacine next.鈥�