Beth Dynowski is an artist and writer based in Glasgow, Scotland. She makes sculpture, performance, projects, poetry and texts. Recent exhibitions, projects, publications and performances include: Leven Street Press, Glasgow Open House (2021); Songs for Work, Glasgow International (2021); Phrase, The White Review Poet’s Prize Shortlist (2019); Poetics in Commons, University of Sheffield, Sheffield (2019); Moralmouth (reading), Good Press, Glasgow (2019); Free Association, CCA, Glasgow (2019), 'Avon' & 'Envyswell' in Adjacent Pineapple (2019).
Porcupine
A fly and its larvae
are working their way
up the throats of
Darwin’s male chicks
eating them from the inside
warping their song.
They should take comfort
in the porcupine whose
spikes are rounded
softened and sanded
so much so that a crowd gathers
to lean in and stroke it.
Or the cockatoo who constructs
a cage using a roll of metal wire.
They have had enough of
unchecked growth, abundance.
Their small red wet lungs are
happy to forgo songs unsung.