Biology Lesson I remember slitting the dead mink's throat Past the place where it had its long neck broken A lesson in precision- The first incision silencing the vegetarian debate Of the latecomers at the back of the class. Through the walls you could hear the school band practice. -The mink kept it's grin, it's carnivorous teeth Yellowed like the dentures of a forty a day smoker. Cutting: The fumes of formaldehyde crept into my clothes Through my school days and then college Walking the long corridors of the zoology department. "Glottis!" you shouted, pointing with your scalpel "Glottis, epiglottis, artery, trachea!" This was your last year The practical down pat from years of experience. You would soon retire into the quiet of your council flat To cultivating your window boxes, to growing a cancer. I sliced on, my tweezers pulling the slack skin tight Trying hard to follow the typed instructions, Blurred by a mistake copied to often. My scissors cracked through the cartilage of the rib cage Accidentally cutting the muscle of the heart. Later When surrounded by flakes of flesh You paid us the compliment of debating our dissection You justifying the mess in terms of our instruction. -Supplying next Summer your body to medical science. But most of us sixth formers were not really interested Preferring to watch the Fifth form girls straggle out to play netball. Through the walls you could hear the school band practice.

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