Steve Ely · Poem: ‘From ‘Lives of British Shrews’’ · LRB 7 September 2023

CERTHIA: creepy post chicxulub convergent evolution counter-shadedneoavian therapod winding the spiral rhytidome lichened bark-back breast luminouslike lard and a crescent of bill scissoring to release thin bursts of high-pitchedliquid twitter like the chalk-softened trill of a titmouse crawling the columns of thehigh cenozoic to probe the airy lignacline araneus and minutus dishwater mouse fodiens washed-out raven gloss-up after the autumn moult then fadebirch twigs poking out like a besom from the split trunk of a willow just inches abovethe shrieking garlic six eggs like great tits more speckled than blotchy where thebug-eyed blind nidicolous chicks quivering in the dark like a litter of saurian pygmieswere gone by the third day the little soft scimitars of their squealing billsdisarticulate in the loam beetles roll the sunstone like the angel of the lord sealing earth releasing firethe profligacy of life exemplified by rates of infant mortality 329 deaths of childrenunder 5 per 1000 live births [great britain 1800] or 90 [central african republic2023] in each case the population growing exponentially in fact they are like theatlantic cod shedding three million eggs per fecund female if two survive to reproducemission accomplished the rest lost bets collateral

Send Letters To:

The Editor London Review of Books, 28 Little Russell Street London, WC1A [email protected] Please include name, address, and a telephone number.

6 May 2021

22 October 2020

24 January 2019

The Editor London Review of Books 28 Little Russell Street London, WC1A 2HN [email protected] Please include name, address and a telephone number