At the Gem and Mineral Collection

God's toothbrush, bristling from a chocolate boulder,
two pink snowcones on a wedge of lime cream pie,
portabello mushroom slices jutting from gray aspic,
a singular pool of cooled black porridge,
white chalk anemones rooted in fossilized moss,
intertwined towers of shaving cream, kinked and knotted,
potato chips and pretzel sticks, broken and fused in caramel,
smooth-spined dandelions gone to seed on sandstone,
wood shavings scattered inside a dessicated stomach,
elephant testicles electroplated with chromium,
silver hair clippings glued to a twisted tree branch,
lemonade icicles hanging from frozen grapejuice.

In the adjoining room, hundreds crowd around
the Hope Diamond,
that unlucky gem turning on a lazy susan.
The Hope's cut is predictable, perfect,
with far fewer facets 
than these chunks of gypsum, calcite, quartz.

Scott Speck
04/10/2001