The Zoo

Ballpoint pen drawing on 9x12 bristol board.

If I were an animal,

I would never want to be in a zoo.

I may be:

a bison astray from the herd,

or a tree lizard running away from a bird,

I may be one of three turtles trying to find my family sunning on the rocks,

or a horse gone astray like a goose fallen from a flock.

I may be a mouse running away from a snake,

or a swan swimming on a lake.

I would even be a bird fighting up in midair,

or a hare without a care.

I would like to live in a forest

whose canopy is filled with bird's nests

or even in a jungle where the monkeys sway

from one tree limb to another along the way.

I would like to be an antelope lazing in the grass,

or a fish swimming in water so clear like glass.

I would like to be a little duckling,

swimming in a straight line following my mother while chuckling.

I could be a buck whose horn has many points

or a slithering snake without joints.

A lizard up in the tree,

far away from mushrooms poisonous as can be.

In a range where rocks look wild

and some even look like a Madonna and Child.

Some trees clustered like a bran muffin

among birds that look like puffins.

In a forest free and mysterious

whose canopy look like men arguing and oh so serious.

In the wild I would be free as can be

Until men with guns come to shoot me.

So click on the image above and without a doubt,

You will see what I am talking about.

The End.