Mating Call of the Re-creation Panda

Re-Creations are defined as renderings which include no natural parts of the animal portrayed . . . For instance, a re-creation eagle could be constructed using turkey feathers, or a cow hide could be used to simulate African game.

—World Taxidermy Championships Rule Book

after Melissa Milgrom's Still Life

Cleanliness is my only real fault:I could have done with a little faux shityellowing my rump, something to make itseem like the bamboo I'm chewing will end upsomewhere. I bear the bodiesof seventeen grizzlies on my back alone:peeled, dried, Clairol-dyed and quiltedinto the whole of me. I know that my earswere done with great tenderness,and one quiet evening, my maker evenbriefly held one in his mouth.That I have no memory is hardly his fault:I'm not even a ghost, since this requires bothlife and death as precedent. Says the poet:What is more precise than precision? Illusion. I am moreprecise than the clockwork of your ownexpiring mitochondria. Come closer.Try to guess the provenance of my claws,gently blow the dust from the smoked sniftersof my eyes. Imagine from what, or whom,your own body could be collaged, whoselips could be stitched into an homageof your smile. Take my lie in your arms.