From Brehm's Life of Animals : Volume 1, Mammalia, c. 1856
Courtesy of the Biodiversity Heritage Library
[How’s it going? Any big plans for the day?]
The mouse darts & swerves—furious Cs cross
uneven brick. Like smeared concrete, dried
waves where imitation subway tiles meet
the wall—“hidden” below the cabinet. 517
P. Street, New Orleans. I’d never say mimesis
appropriates reality. Plants want to
survive. If a predator snatches him by the tail,
the mouse responds by degloving: shedding
the outer layer. Now missing the tail’s
protective integumentary skin, the response
to pain leaves him susceptible to disease.
I didn’t realize you had your clip in. [C took P
to a warehouse sale. They’re coming back—the line’s
too long.] A mouse’s tail also serves as a thermoregulator.
Leave an ice block in an alley in the middle of July
around midnight: catch a pack tacking
their tails to the sides. In the research,
those who repress memories have also been found
to falsify memories. In this city
you see them coming & going, never
at rest.