Take the approach of 19th century science
that it is possible to make a whole
from a collection of parts,
a culture ranged, visible,
in the Pitt Rivers museum,
or rather a set of cultures
in which objects of similar shape
can be compared and contrasted,
and this is knowledge;
implements of war arrayed
in battalions, as the feathers,
rocks, stuffed birds and pinned butterflies
(ruins of culture and nature)
under the iron cranium,
the foliage and painted brackets
of Victorian architecture:
a glass case containing
further glass cases.

'a tall teddy bear, so old
that his hair had turned grey'

abandoned on the chaise-longue, Wolvercote,
with the Sunday papers, the screed
of governmental perfidy

'a very fine teddy bear army'.

Copyright © Laurie Duggan, 2003.