Ontology and the Platypus

So which mammalian fuck-up list produced
the platypus, produced the bird-billed, flat-foot, erstwhile
beavers dressed like ducks for Halloween?
Crepuscular and nipple-less,
they suckle hatchlings in the changeling dusk—

Diaphanously the god-swan boned
a married chick and she begot two eggs,
neither good. The launching of a thousand ships ensued.
Homer never saw a platypus,
though in his dreams he may have heard them growl,
a noise between a gurgle and a hiss.
The males are venomous. A plural
form of platypus does not exist.

Copyright © 2009 Kathy Fagan All rights reserved
from Colorado Review
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission