All the Dread the Burgess Shale Creatures May Inspire / Andrew Garcia

But why should I write anything, my sweet?
Perpetually I force a hand to write
these lines inanimate. I count their feet,
as if the muses infinitely bright
would meet me in such pedestrian affairs
to touch my ears, and brighten my tongue a share,

Who wrought such dark bewilderments as these:
so gaily limbed and bristled, fore and aft,
they baffled orientation for a century.
How all the lighthearted heavens must have laughed!
And here among my books, in this dim room,
I sit here writing what—and why? for whom?

Andrew Garcia grew up in Ypsilanti, and now lives in the Woodbridge neighborhood of Detroit. He is a graduate student at Wayne State. He has 2 cats.