THE COLLECTOR, or, Homage to the Curators

"One cannot collect all the beautiful shells on the beach. One can only collect a few, and they are more beautiful if they are few."
-Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Not true, dear Anne! (the collector said).
I'll have the world's completest collection,
I'll keep collecting, till I'm dead,
The best and worst in each direction.

There'll be a name on every shell;
For every shell, a label.
The paper will be ar-chi-val,
At least, while I am able.

Ranks on ranks of cabinets,
Rooms of clams and snails!
Dry, alcoholic, live; my pets
Flow over into pails.

A whole museum, no, a town!
I'll branch out into fossils!
I must lie every mollusk down,
Including extraterrestrials!

No, I won't rest till EVERY shell
No matter how worn or indistinct
Is sitting in my museum hall,
With every species quite extinct.

Andrew K. Rindsberg
(but it could be Kurt, or Helmut, or Gary... Only Art knows how to keep a collection small!)