sometime between 1991 and 1996
a poem for younger readers from my hypertext novel axel-and-alice
Hilary said in ‘birds’
(whose brains are small because they have to carry them wherever they fly)
that they have to double up with what we normally do
in other parts of the brain
they use the seeing part of the brain
to think with, too
not like us ground dwellers
who carry as much weight as we like
on thin necks, like
I saw African women on a video
carrying bundles of firewood
and water jars on their heads
across a desolate bright landscape
I tried it with a bucket of water
and increased it by a litre a day till Mum took me to the doctor
to see what was wrong