The fuzzy wuzzy caterpillar’s teacher was a jackdaw, a relationship to tax both species’ patience, given neither creature served the other for protection or as snacks. The worm mumbled something muffled by the bleacher it hid under. ‘What,’ the bird said, ‘is that you ask? You are fuzzy and inept and not that dear. You(…)

‘One mess,’ the jackdaw ponders. ‘Then two mice? And the plural of die, you say, one writes as dice? No wonder humans cavil and complain about such nonessentials as who’ll reign while staying blind to climates that they warm so much that soon it’s roaches that will swarm where once were many species, lots of(…)

Me:  ‘The homunculus is at home in poems and comments that are twistier than brain crevices, foldier than proteins, more la-di-da than Falange campaign ribbons…’ Jackdaw Gilbert flies down, hovers:  ‘CAW!’ Me:  ‘Thanks. I needed that. I was getting carried away there thinking about the TED Talk, “WANT OTHERS TO LISTEN TO YOU? 4 THINGS(…)

His homunculus, too persistent to exist, sits in a mythic chaise longue in his mind. ‘So, where will I be, when your brain is gone?’ it asks, and laughs, and keeps him half awake.

While the rest of his ilk are contentedly flocking together he looks up new words in a lexicon left on a table. He blinks at ‘quadratics’. He bristles at ‘birds of a feather’. He’s amused by ‘Icarus’ and caws ‘European’ a fable. He fancies he’s painting, or building a boat, or a castle. He pretends(…)