Simply leaving specimens in a cyanide jar for a while sometimes will relax them, but this method is not reliable.

Centre of Insect Systematics

You will need to be pinned in the middle

of your thorax. And, darling, did

you know, that gin is preferable to vodka

in the relaxing jar? I once saw butterflies

mounted by an amateur; glassed too late –

they became infested by tiny insects.

I look over and you are transfixed,

composed. Perhaps it's all the order,

the systems in this quiet and simple

world of corpses? Later, I saw spliced

spiders displayed on framed plastic slides.

I am choosing a pair of lashes that

I will wear for you. In the corner of

my eye I thought I saw one twitch.