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In the Nature Section

Rows of butterflies
pinned in shallow glass cases.
This is the birds and bees room—
we kiss.

See, through here
half a duck disappears
into a concrete pond.

An albatross,
huge as a turkey,
surveys the scene
with her bead eye.

The skeletons
of two beaked whales
hang from the roof.

In a case in the next room
folding spectacles
and a memory pad
of thin bone.

A letter begins
Dear Mother, John and I
are looking to get away