Our Zoo
This faceted, sun-cooled early-November Sunday afternoon,
We can tell our hand-in-hand presence is being welcomed
By the graceful swimming of Humboldt penguins;
The choreographed pacing and swaying of Asian elephants;
The sleek, streamlined flowing of sea lions and seals;
The long-legged leaping, from caged galaxy to galaxy,
Of Coquerel's sifaka lemurs;
The underwater ballet being performed, to ecstasy's music,
By a pod of sub-Saharan hippopotamuses;
And the antic-filled playing of western-lowland gorillas,
Gathered in a family group including two massive silverbacks.
Within these man-sculpted confines of our St. Louis Zoo,
Conceived to promulgate tranquillity and peace
Among so many of the planet's endangered animal species,
We share their sense of serenity, safety, timelessness,
A freedom that all of us social beings are easily breathing
As we send our natural energies into this nurturing universe.
Captured in our extended activity of seeing and being seen,
We captives are captivated by each other's exotic proximity,
In this place where we don't see fences, barriers, gates
But rather spaces that blend us,
In an open-ended dialogue, a conversation of unspoken love.
11/06/12 - (2)
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