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Tuesday, March 31, 2015

SHOWING A DVD ON THE GALAPAGOS TO A NINTH GRADE CLASS

by Don Kingfisher Campbell




Some watch the projected video
of blue footed boobies
diving down like bombers
to feast on an unsuspecting school of fish

Others would rather stare
into their small lighted rectangles
to play a game, send messages
or simply check out their faces

The British narratress
twistedly intones the wonder
of sea lions snatching by the tail
swimming rock-colored iguanas

And what will become
of the fourteen-year-olds
who don’t care to take notes
on this predatory world

The gliding hawk seizes
the frantically running lizard
The bug-eyed orange crabs
pinch off pieces of wounded seagull

Are these students doomed
to be pushing paper, repairing roads
selling cars, hammering homes
stocking stores, serving plates

The volcanic islands themselves
are born in the ocean
live a few million years
sink slowly to die


Don Kingfisher Campbell’s poetry has recently been published in the anthologies Altadena Poetry Review, Like A Girl, Poems To F*ck To, San Pedro River Review, Attack of the Poems, Gutters & Alleyways, and Lummox #3; and in cyberspace on Toe Good Poetry, In-Flight Literary Magazine, Poetic Diversity, Where I Live-Silver Birch Press, One Sentence Poems, Cadence Collective, and Camel Saloon.