The Zoo
A city needs a zoo.
We need to see animals in natural,
simulated habitats.
At the zoo, they are grouped
into neighborhoods, continents.
We gawk at their eyes,
the giraffe's canopy of black lashes,
the elephant's fatigued Bakelite.
The zoo employees are dressed
for safari, in rumped khaki.
The animals feel quite
comfortable, of this we are certain.
They still roar and shriek,
trill and grunt. They eat
their favourite foods at the zoo.
When we leave, we hope
to carry in us something of
their fierceness, their unruliness,
but often, I think of how far
from home they are and will always be.
My favorite line: "But often, I think of how far from home they are and will always be." It's a great poem to go with Tim O'Brien's painting.
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