Wellcome

My plans exist in my mind like a jigsaw puzzle
… and gradually I shall be able to piece it together
(Sir Henry Wellcome, 1853-1936)

As though a neolithic arrowhead he’d unearthed
at the age of four had entered his bloodstream,
its sliver of flint sparking an obsession, the items
he acquired over the years ranged from Darwin’s
whalebone walking-stick, Napoleon’s toothbrush
and a pair of Florence Nightingale’s mocassins
to shrunken heads and tons of ancient armour.