Changming Yuan’s most recent poem to appear here was Walking My Inner Being (March 2014).

Outside the Zoo
By Changming Yuan

A hen party is held
Around a sitting duck
While there is a bull meeting
Where you can see the elephant
Getting the goose when it tries to tell
The difference between the sheep and the goats
Farther away, a black snake falls down
Neither fish, flesh, nor fowl
Smelling a rat somewhere
As you are being showed the lions
Ready to take the bull by the horns
Until the cows come home

While learning about birds and bees
I feel ants in my pants
The cat’s got my tongue
Hey, I do not mean tot chicken out
Or clam up on these dog days
Rather, I would try to be an eager beaver
Hold my horses,
When I have a cow
That’s what a little bird told me
About how they made a beeline for
Pigging out
Before it rains dogs and cats