3 poems in GUTTURAL No. 3

MA|DE has several new poems (‘Extremophile’, ‘Minimal Surfaces and ‘When We Were Wolves’) in issue 3 of GUTTURAL magazine, along with tons of other amazing contributors. Here’s one of three — check out our other poems here

MA|DE
EXTREMOPHILE

Water enough to withstand boiling,
bear enough to outlast the frigidity of space:
not adapted to exploit these conditions,
only to endure them; slow walking.

If a caterpillar met a manatee
on the eve of the apocalypse
and schemed to outlast everything
but the sun, they would become a much
smaller creature than anyone expected.

Creator of all things, incognito.
Tried to exert their will on it,
but it would not take shape.
So tardigrade becomes retrograde,
desiccating into glass and then
waiting for resurrection.