Sunday, March 3, 2013

The Penguin


The Penguin

My birthday in Dublin Zoo.

It’s all too much. The white rhinoceros,
The common shoveller, the Cuban tree-frog.
A whole world and every part of it
A short walk from the tea-room.

Grating buggies, Cornettoes.
A basin of blue concrete
And a Humboldt penguin swimming
In three feet of dirty water.

If only we could slip inside those eyes
And find our way back
To the pack-ice in the Weddell Sea, the churning waves and daring escapes from Leopard seals.

Instead, we move on to the gibbons.

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