CATGUT STRING THEORY

Is it so that the intestines of cats

Strung the staunch wooden racquets

Of the ladies in starched dresses

So pleated and hard white?

Are the universes all kept like beetles

In a matchbox in the bottom drawer

Of a desk at which no-one sits,

Nor may ever have sat?

Writing a lengthy To Do list

Whilst idly stroking a cat

That grew the generic for any beast

That gave its guts for our glory,

One item is to consult the entrails

For the origins of all the species

That jostle and snore, frolic and claw
In the matchbox of your bottom drawer.

- Larry Buttrose