Greater Burdock Museum

 

On the edge of the moor,

a exhibit of Cornish Path Moss

is displayed in a glass case, eventually—

the museum of my heath home,

housing bog moss and dried up roots

of bibelot beggar’s button—consensually 

in brown and green,

a stuffed pheasant with head plumage of blue,

and red wattle,

a bagatelle acorn from the Darley Oak, unripe,

curio from the beast of Bodmin Moor:

a black cat’s claw from a puma phantom, 

horsehair from the wild ponies 

at Crowdy Reservoir,

a star shadow from the dark sky landscape,

with a sentinel of yellow gorse

sternly guarding the door.

Emily Isaacson