The Futility Zoo

Look, the blowhole of a migrating whale

stuffed with useless maps

of an ocean that never existed.

Bison, glancing up from the grass

at a trainful of monkeys shaking

their glittering trumpets.  See the tapir,

lolling in mud, feasting

on the succulence of impossible

dreams.  Or the raging wolf pack,

locked in a fight with one tough cricket

defending its broken wing.  Fleet of

trained squirrels, unicycles tipping the edge

of a black lunar canyon.

See the pygmy sloth licking salt from

the edge of a mangrove leaf,

exerting tiny powers.

The limping puma, blood-soaked paw

striking a sheepfold of thorns.

Condor's nest embracing a perfect egg

in the last pine, ablaze.