It's just poetry, it won't bite

At the Zoos


03.27.19 Posted in today's words by

Sharon Kennedy-Nolle’s most recent poem to appear here was “Augury” (January 2019).

At the Zoos
By Sharon Kennedy-Nolle

The first one is crowdless in winter quiet.
The grizzlies wallop; the crane whoops,
The howler monkeys flea pick, while the rats flaunt their fat.
The snow leopard paces from iron door to iron door,
While the flamingos retire their color to winter quarters,
the butterflies stay dead ‘till spring.
The second is Seroquel quiet.
The smell of piss in overheated halls.
After pilling, tongues loll like those of stressed dogs.
The day is hard to swallow.
Then, snack-time, Jeopardy!, sleep
One inmate can’t keep her pants up.
Another can’t keep his dick down.
Nothing ever happens of its own contraband accord.
Beyond the Xeroxed promise, “Window to Recovery,”
gauged off the gnawed cork boards,
I sneak you two tangerines:
little roared hopes held out,
around which you clench your fists.



Comments are closed.

Latest Podcast Episode
0:00
0:00
vox poetica archives