by Siddiq Islam

Lapworth. Megaloceros. Hanging on the wall like a giant freak.
There’s something intense about all this debris,
The coloured rocks and the dead fish in the cupboards.

I’d hate to end up like them some day. Dusty. Preserved.
Maybe I’d enjoy the attention,
The little kids’ fingerprints on my glass,
The bright museum lights washing over me.

But I don’t have antlers like Meg does,
So they’d probably string me up by my limbs,
Steel cord chafing my ankles and wrists,
A sorry position to be in, without doubt.

Much better the comforts of a dull hole,
The warm darkness and the tight,
Cosy pressure of six feet of dirt,
And the wooden walls of my home.

Inspired by the Megaloceros skull hanging
on the wall in the Lapworth Museum
at Birmingham University