David W. Landrum

Fennec Foxes

Huge ears (you notice them at once) atop

a head too small, it seems, to bear their weight;

a rodent: thin, diminutive; backdrop

of desert sand and dunes. When they would slake

their thirst but can’t find water, they burrow

into the earth, deep, where the sand is cool;

their body heat, much warmer than the furrow’s

base temperature, condenses (by the rule

of chemical formation) elements

of oxygen and hydrogen; and, soon,

water to drink is formed. The moments spent

beneath the sand becomes the creature’s boon,

granted by God, instinct, or by nature—

amazing, whatever the nomenclature.

David W. Landrum has published poetry in numerous journals, including New Oxford Review, Measure, Autumn Sky, Pulsebeat, and The Orchards. Two volumes of his poetry—The Impossibility Of Epithalamia and Tawney Grammar are available for purchase.