Fingernail Clippers

I don't know what they're called
in Italian or Russian or Turkish
but I intend to find out.

They are a singular plural
in English.

A sea creature of lore had a
gigantic, snub-nosed head
and a tapering body. Our
digital blacksmiths hammer
out replicas.

Lever and fulcrum and
paired toothless blades:
the spare architecture
of a specialized tool.

Owing to his mania,
the reclusive billionaire
eschewed clippers and let
his fingernails accrue
like stalactites. They clicked
like scurrying roaches.

Crows and monkeys groom
each other, picking bugs
from feathers and fur. A calm
comes over them as they pick
and peck. Thinking of them,
I clip a thumbnail--hiding,
like them, from hunger and
fear for a moment, attending
silently to a bodily chore.


hans ostrom 2020