Find a pot of nail varnish: “Confident
Coral”, by Jessica, perhaps. Fetch
the stainless steel nail scissors and walk
beneath the flying March shadows.
Lie on the grass; adjust your scale
of focus to the miniscule. The cat, hull-down
among the crocuses, observes with mild
interest. Select and mark your snail.
A scarlet shell-top will allow no later
confusion of identity. Now advance,
scissors gaping and extended, remembering
that this is science: to verify by repetition
the results observed by others, to wit
Eakin and Fertalle, in which garden snails
repaired the loss of an entire eye-stalk
within thirty-two days of amputation.
Joe Evans works in education, having previously been a stained glass artist, a company director, a gardener and a musician. His poetry has been published in The SHOp (Ireland), Lighthouse and Sarasvati as well as various online collections. He is forty-four and has two children.