Previously published as Over the Shoulder, bibliographic poetry (LukivPress Online, Quesnel, BC, 2007). // An excerpt // Arctic Killer // Polar bear: / Hiding, / With a paw, / Your black nose / (Ingenious) / As you stalk prey. / You're eidolic, / A Portuguese man-of-war, / To the flesh / You eat. // Photographer-pilots / "Captured" you / In your white desert: / Click. / But you, / In an 8 by 10 paradox, / Weren't there, / Like a Hollywood vampire / Without a virtual / Image. // Even infrared fails / To capture you / Who, / Like a black hole, / Harvests solar heat / That black skin / Absorbs. // Ultraviolet film / Exposes you: / A great, / Black amoeba, / As unphotogenic as / The small, / White seals / (They too are / Heat-absorbing miracles) / That you eat. // You stalk men-- / You, / The most beautiful / Of all bears / (Some say)-- / Just as Nimrod / Stalked men / In war-play. // In a zoo-cage / You're adored / By awe-struck children / ("He's so cute!"), // But in the wild, / Face to face, / You're a gargoyle / With teeth / That kill.
