an ancient comb in the Met.
animals parade across an ivory page
at the head
elephants trampling, snakes rising up
each full step beats out a wor(l)d —
and the kerfuffle of
waterbirds, cattle
hyenas yipping
plus one forlorn giraffe.
everything’s new, moving
to the drum
Image: Egyptian Hair Comb Decorated with Rows of Wild Animals
For more on African elephants and other people here’s photographer Nick Brandt with ‘On this Earth‘
And for your enjoyment, as I’m still a bit in the thrall of Vikingur Olafsson (Icelandic piano superstar and recent artist in residence for the BBC radio 4), here he is in a wet garden.
Peter Frankis writes 
I love where that ancient comb took you, and the animal sounds, especially the ‘kerfuffle of waterbirds’ – great word, kerfuffle!
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I was thinking two-by-two into the ark until I saw the giraffe was a singleton. Poor giraffe 🦒
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The “hyenas yipping” I began to sense the comb as full of sound.
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“Everything’s new …” a note of promise, hope.
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Definitely 😀
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What an interesting art piece and story! Such a great rhythm!
When I first saw the picture, I thought that looks like a really delicious shortbread cookie!!
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– and it’s 5000 years old – and you can still see the remains of the fine teeth of the comb. Amazing object.
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Amazing! Hard to believe it survived this long!
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I can hear the image.
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You’ve brought the artifact back to life. I could hear the drumming. I really had to wonder about the significance of the single giraffe.
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Yes! Everything was new then, and splendid and exciting enough to be used as decoration. Something fundamental we’ve lost in our world of artifice.
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It’s amazing how much life you can find in such a wonderful artifact. Thank you for finding its song.
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Peter can you contact me on brudberg@gmail com I have something to ask you about.
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Wonderful take!
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Excellent, excellent wordplay here! ❤️ I love; “the kerfuffle of waterbirds, cattle, hyenas yipping.” 🙂
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Some days I too have the sensation that everything is new, although nothing is. I guess the giraffe was created because of a fault in the ivory or a slip-up, kudos to the artist. And today, the same giraffes are everywhere, but I don’t mind. Thanks for sharing, Peter.
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Thanks Steve, yes or maybe the giraffe just wandered in there at the last moment displacing a flock of waterbirds. It’s a wonderful object.
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