Diorama: The Melbourne Museum



Beth Spencer

Okapi (-ah-) n. bright-coloured partially striped
Central-African ruminant discovered 1900,
with likeness to giraffe, deer, and zebra.
--The moth eats 
--The museum preserves 
--The Okapi arrests
She sits in her glass case 
watching the stairs   

Feels her danger 
but doesn't see, the tiger
springing out 
teeth bared

Lost) in deep forest

(Found 
          in "perpetual 
                             heat 
                             moisture 
                             gloom 
                             & silence" 
          [in a glass box]
With the smell 
of the stone stairs   

The smell of the 
stonestairs 
               (like) 
                        schoolgirls

From: Things in a Glass Box, © 1994 Beth Spencer




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