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      October 20, 2023BestiaryKai Jensen

      for Liz Tapp

      All my life I’ve wanted to knit an aardvark
      not this endless succession of zebras—
      black and white wool seems sterile
      and the stripes never come out lifelike.
       
      What is it about being human
      that we start at the other end of things
      look yearningly over self-erected fences?
      All my life I’ve wanted to knit an aardvark.
       
      God who is the alpha and omega
      made animals that start with every letter
      all my life I’ve wanted to knit an aardvark
      not an x-ray fish or yabby.
       
      How I yearn for rich brown yarn
      clicking through my needles
      smelling of the sunbaked veldt:
      all my life I’ve wanted to knit an aardvark.

      from #81 - Fall 2023

      Kai Jensen

      Prompt: “My neighbour Liz said, ‘All my life I’ve wanted to knit an aardvark,’ and I said, ‘That would be a great first line for a poem.’”

      “I like to (paradoxically) liberate my writing by placing constraints on it (a form, a process). A prompt line narrows and focuses, a bit like a starting block for a sprinter. From this fixed point, how far/wide can I range?”

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