Center stage, porch light blazing, oohed and aahed at by passersby. Bright eyes lit from within. But candle burns, continually drips. Insides shrivel, eyes begin to droop. Carved in grin begins to sneer.
Inevitably the brouhaha ends crowds thin, candle burns out. Orange flesh sags, collapses from within. Maggots begin to appear. You should have known, pumpkins do rot.
Written for dVerse, the virtual pub for poets around the globe. Today is OLN (Open Link Night) at dVerse so we can post any one poem of our choosing. No required topic, form or length.
A flamboyance followed the out-of-control antics of the most orange one. They dumbly stood on one leg seemingly unable to stand on their own two feet.
Conspiracies exploded in numbers as zookeepers looked on aghast. These animals were becoming a colony, a clan, a bloat on the community, a herd of blind cows.
Behaviorists know otters may romp, crocadiles bask, and zebras dazzle. But humans who gaggle, needlessly creating a pandemonium, deliberately crashing the order of things that’s dangerous to every zoo in the world.
All zoo keepers must issue a warning: Beware the squeal of a muskrat in cahoots with a flamboyance. Remember the movie “The Birds” – they gather precariously on a high wire, the murder creating the cacophony. We cannot let them succeed.
Written for Tuesday Poetics at dVerse, the virtual pub for poets around the globe. Today is April Fool’s Day and in keeping with the date, Melissa asks us to write a poem that is partially a lie and partially the truth. She suggests a 60% to 40% ratio.
Not sure about my percentages….but suffice it to say, my poem is not about a zoo. There is much truth here however. Note the use of actual names for groups of animals. Flamboyance:a group of flamingos (who are orange and often stand on one foot) Conspiracy: a group of lemurs Colony: a group of ants Clan: a group of hyenas Bloat: a group of hippos Herd of cows Romp: a group of otters Bask: a group of crocodiles Dazzle: a group of zebras Gaggle of geese Pandemonium: a group of parrots and finally, a Murder is a group of crows.
lillian the home poet 