The world’s most trafficked mammal
Rolls up like a pine cone
Stinks worse than a skunk
Finds home in trees and burrows
Only the Chinese think they tunnel
Across the length of the earth
Always alone unless with young
They lack teeth
Shoot sticky Spiderman tongues onto
Termites and ants
Grind their prey with stomach stones
Looking like a tailed vacuum cleaner
They’re killed for their scales
Just keratin – same as human hair
Of no use to anyone anywhere
Unless you like grey boots
But people believe
Because they want to believe
Because magic is belief and belief makes magic
Pangolin scales cure cancers
Stimulate sex and give long life
You’d get equal results
Stuffing barber clippings in your breakfast blender
Pangolins, bees, butterflies, trees
You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone
And you’re the goner