
Pomatoceros triqueter
What kind of animal has such a name
Is it related to the rhinoceros
Does it have three horns
Perhaps a fearsome dinosaur
For those have not yet Googled the name
It is a small tube worm
Found on rocky english coasts
A filter feeder with colored bristles
I studied this creature at school
In a biology class
More than five decades ago
I am still trying to understand
Why I can recall the name of this creature
The class was not at all exciting
The teacher was not that memorable
I do not even remember her name
I was never turned on by worms
Nobody feinted or self combusted in that class
Yet that little worm burrowed into my brain cells
Waiting for its moment of fame
I never quoted it during a job interview
I never used it as a dating pickup line
I never talked about it at a dinner party
I never scored a win at scrabble with it
It just sat there patiently for over fifty years
Waiting for its fifteen minutes of fame
Well now you got it mister
You are in a poem
That will be read by others
Who will each have your name
Burrowed deep into their memory cells
Waiting patiently to be recalled
Sometime in the next half century