[vc_row row_height_percent=”50″ override_padding=”yes” h_padding=”2″ top_padding=”3″ bottom_padding=”3″ back_image=”56863″ back_position=”center top” overlay_alpha=”0″ gutter_size=”3″ shift_y=”0″][vc_column column_width_percent=”100″ position_vertical=”bottom” style=”dark” overlay_alpha=”50″ gutter_size=”3″ medium_width=”0″ shift_x=”0″ shift_y=”0″ zoom_width=”0″ zoom_height=”0″ width=”1/1″][vc_custom_heading heading_semantic=”h1″ text_size=”fontsize-338686″ text_height=”fontheight-179065″ text_space=”fontspace-111509″ text_font=”font-762333″ text_weight=”700″ text_color=”color-xsdn” sub_reduced=”yes” subheading=”by Catherine Pond”]University of Iowa Museum of Natural History[/vc_custom_heading][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_empty_space empty_h=”2″][vc_column_text]Under a replica of a mammoth sloth, you place my hand
on your stomach and I feel the baby
kick. I look at a diorama of the Plains Indians, imagine

a tornado sweeping across their cardboard empire,
shaking the figurines loose from their toothpick fence.
We don’t speak; the museum

of tomorrow is small, and we are scared of the surgical knife
that will slice through your abdomen.
To exit, we walk backwards through the Devonian era

where the world is mostly water
and you get tired quickly. Here, the fish are still just
forming. The first forests, taking shape.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column column_width_percent=”100″ align_horizontal=”align_center” overlay_alpha=”50″ gutter_size=”3″ medium_width=”0″ mobile_width=”0″ shift_x=”0″ shift_y=”0″ z_index=”0″ width=”1/1″][vc_empty_space][vc_separator sep_color=”color-184322″ el_width=”30%”][vc_empty_space][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column column_width_percent=”100″ align_horizontal=”align_right” overlay_alpha=”50″ gutter_size=”3″ medium_width=”0″ mobile_width=”0″ shift_x=”0″ shift_y=”0″ z_index=”0″ width=”1/3″][vc_single_image media=”57381″ media_width_percent=”100″][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_column_text]Catherine Pond teaches at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Boston Review, Salmagundi, Tupelo Quarterly, The Antioch Review, and more. She is a recipient of the 2015 Lotos Foundation Prize.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][/vc_column][/vc_row]