Hard Times in The Bronx Zoo (draft)

When the air is stale
and mole ridden,
when humidity pools
and mosquitoes fester
and there's not enough frogs
to eat their larvae,
you wish you had been born a snake.

When the frost is delayed
in fair Newfoundland,
you'd tear down Gotham City
for a taste of a freezing.
You'd say to the Snow Queen;
Thou full of grace, take me
I am your cuddly shaggy.

Pelt me with ice cubes.
Stab me with icicles.
Certainly, homo erectus are devils,
for hell they have laid and hell shall they pay
But in the meanwhile, ain't there a heaven
for us polar bears in Bronx Zoo captivity,
summer to winter, year after year?




I wretched and polar
in Bronx Zoo captivity