by Julia Griffin

Last month, the national museum of Ireland “received two 4,000-year-old axe heads, ‘thoughtfully’ wrapped in [pink] foam
inside a porridge box … [A] farmer from County Westmeath has come forward as the mysterious sender,
saying he made the ‘absolutely mad’ discovery while using a metal detector on his land.”
—The Guardian

Open the box: a tub of rosy foam
Bubbles to light, new-made and feminine,
Bathtime for Barbie! And, enwombed within,
See two gray axe heads, hauled up from the loam.

Why now, this century? A curious
Farmer, detecting metal in his ground,
Unburied them, found foam to wrap them round,
And sent them on. And so they come to us,

After four thousand years: each heavy blade
Looks threatening as ever, though less keen,
Nursed and reborn from polyethylene
(A sweeter-looking killer we have made).