(Tell me to write a sonnet one more time and I shall refuse and therefore discard any sense of structure.)

Gorgonopsids were the apex predators of the Permian 

You told me once that you were incredibly

spare 

with feelings

but the thing is

I can’t look at you with a stern

face and tell you to your hollow

tears-shed bare

eyes 

that you’ve captured me with canine 

teeth,

and broke my body

in your jaw

beneath the

6-

7-

8-

nine 

constellations above us

that could relay

just approximately

 what they saw.

 

Just approximately,

if you would so

kindly quit

tearing at my skin,

veins

vulnerable to your strain 

of nature,

perhaps there’s one thing you would know:

 

Permian pigs,

for their extinction naught to blame

as no human

can

stroke

a beast

that is not tame.