As I explain in the main menu, this section will not include any material that remains unpublished since webzines will generally not consider ‘reprints’: poems that have already been published elsewhere.

THE HUMAN ZOO

This poem was first published in an online webzine, Alternate Route.

The dogs chained in their kennels,
The birds locked in their cage,
The humans in their human zoo
Which they, not gods, have made.

The lions pace their prisons,
The gladiators preen,
The humans on the thirteenth floor
Gawp at their TV screens.

The goat is safely tethered,
The bears and boars all killed,
The humans view the big bad wolf
And swallow happy pills.

The soundless elevator
Glides to a different jail,
The humans in their metal box
Touch ground on asphalt trails.

The lion’s claws extracted,
The tethered goat gets slain,
The humans in their human zoo
Go, one by one, insane.