{"id":3727,"date":"2023-04-21T01:00:11","date_gmt":"2023-04-21T05:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/spire\/?p=3727"},"modified":"2023-04-21T09:06:29","modified_gmt":"2023-04-21T13:06:29","slug":"gardner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/spire\/2023\/04\/21\/gardner\/","title":{"rendered":"Post-Modern Prometheus"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Christopher Gardner<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I went to the zoo today<\/span><\/p>\n

to see the first wooly mammoth born<\/span><\/p>\n

in the 21<\/span>st<\/span> century.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

They had him<\/span><\/p>\n

in a special, too-small\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Enclosure<\/span><\/p>\n

away from the other elephants<\/span><\/p>\n

because they had tried to kill him.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t understand why.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sitting in the palm-frond shade,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

oversize ears fanning slow,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Deliberate<\/span><\/p>\n

in the San Diego heat.<\/span><\/p>\n

The kid next to me threw peanuts.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they brought the second mammoth in,\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The kid\u2019s mother said to the wind,<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201che gored it to death<\/span><\/p>\n

right there.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She touched her breast bone, pointed out<\/span><\/p>\n

the dull rust stain on the grass,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

on the bars.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

They didn\u2019t understand why.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I think I understand<\/span><\/p>\n

the look in his eyes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The way he couldn\u2019t look<\/span><\/p>\n

into the water<\/span><\/p>\n

because he was afraid<\/span><\/p>\n

of his own skin.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The machine that birthed him<\/span><\/p>\n

hadn\u2019t told him<\/span><\/p>\n

his name.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Gene-spliced not-clone<\/span><\/p>\n

Hybrid Erlenmeyer flask beast.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Is that him?<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cI hear they\u2019re gonna sell them<\/span><\/p>\n

to Disney World.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

I wonder if he can hear it\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

Lonely tundra wind call trumpets\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re gonna do the Thylacine next.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Christopher Gardner   I went to the zoo today to see the first wooly mammoth born in the 21st century.\u00a0   They had him in a special, too-small\u00a0 Enclosure away from the other elephants because they had tried to kill him.   He didn\u2019t understand why.\u00a0   Sitting in the palm-frond shade,\u00a0 oversize ears […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2031,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spire-2023-issue"],"yoast_head":"\nPost-Modern Prometheus - The Maine Journal of Conservation and Sustainability - 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