TO THE IBERIAN LYNX

You met the love of your life
in a sensible parking lot.
No doubt, he’s driven you
crazy since. But there are worse places
To find forever - entrapped
between paperwork and plot holes, 
perhaps you’ll wonder
if pineapple was the best topping. 
At the time, it was the only
topping, and there was no right
turn, only red lights and a sensible
roundabout you couldn’t leave
without getting left. 

ENTOMOLOGY

Let me apologize for calling a butterfly
a caterpillar. I didn’t grow up
in the reference stacks, nor did I grow up. 
Did I think of my father
and his evenings in Mullens Library, 
The night I found myself pinned under candlelight
And monarch stains? 
I thought only of fingers doused in moonlight
and how butterflies don’t fear children, 
Or entomologists with nets.
I thought only of how I was never afraid – 

Not once.

Not even a little. 

HIBA TAHIR is the winner of Product's 2017 poetry prize. She is a junior English and news editorial journalism double major at the University of Southern Mississippi. She is a native of Cleveland, Mississippi and serves as Entertainment and Social Media editor of The Student Printz, where she writes a weekly humor column called Swipe Right.