Eating Animal Crackers

by Maurice Oliver

The unmistakable smell of a zoo.
A cockroach who develops bed sores.
Orangutans who do calculus. Skunk
or cigar. A widow webbing a willow.
Chickens who cut their own throats.
Pig tails when they bleed. Or lazy
lizards. Perch in a pond. Ants that
claim squatters rights sugar cubes.
The versatility of rat poison. A
circus troupe of acrobatic pigeons.
A notorious loan shark. The hen in
her. The otter out of me. Knowing
every slab by its suffering. Eagle
eye. Fish eggs. Oyster shells. A
police dog mauling a parking meter.
Cats that scratch. A bull with balls.
A hippo in a wheelchair. Elephant
ankles. Horse feathers. Turkey trot.
What bears do in the woods. Armadillos
adept at grave digging. The keynote
speaker at a dung beetle convention.
The ability to count sheep. Rainbows
that think they’re trout. And tadpoles.
All sound pretty jelly fishy to me.

2 Responses to “Eating Animal Crackers”

Rachel

August 25th, 2005 at 6:53 pm

the ability to weave all simile and euphimism … intriguing and very signiture work. Impressive.
Thomas a tankengine

February 10th, 2008 at 10:55 am

I like this stuff though it is simple enough.

A list poem done differently. I.E. take a list of images and make them absurd.

Good eh…

That’s what you need in poetry an angle.

But the imagery is great.