In celebration of April Fools’ Day, I’m pulling out one of the few remaining Photo of the Day poems I wrote back in 2019, inspired by the best photographs on The Guardian‘s website. Back on February 13th, the image above led me into a whimsical (and clearly immature) reflection on collecting stool samples. Rather than throw in the potential bad dad joke about the number of legs on each stool, I’ll cut to the poem itself.
A Dirty Joke
by Vincent H. Anastasi 2019
Someone has played a dirty joke
The likes of which you won’t believe
To send me rummaging about
Antarctic penguin colonies.
Somewhere amidst these soiled stones
A treasure lies, or so I’m told,
So I will scour every inch
And still press on despite the cold.
What mysteries will I unlock
When I decode the frozen stool,
Fresh wisdom of penguin cuisine
Or merely that I am a fool?
the deepening ground 
Leave a comment