The Pangolin

The angle of repose is just another way to say “rest—the way it hides,” yet remains symbolic, the coat of armor, walks like a bottleneck, yet folded sheets of earth, bagged in a twist, as it scans, like scales, another pressing day, once it was a native, but now a paler shade, desperate to search instead, wandering close in thirst: we hope for more, the way it swallows, all this is simply a hinge;

• Marianne Moore