by Jerome Betts
Search is on for the German hairy snail in London:
Conchologists and citizen scientists team up to seek
out endangered mollusc species along River Thames.
—The Guardian,November 24, 2025
Hush, hush, chortle who dares,
At people out looking for shells growing hairs!
They’re along by the Thames under pieces of wood,
Only fingernail-sized, though they may have withstood
A break from old Europe worse than Boris’s Brexit
As Doggerland sank and sea rose to annex it.
So here’s to conchologists, clean-shaven or hirsute,
As they seek tiny molluscs encased in a fur suit!
Jerome Betts lives in Devon, England, where he edits the verse quarterly Lighten Up Online.
