Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE ZOO by HUMBERT WOLFE

First Line: I SCARCELY THINK / I LIKE THE ZOO / AS MUCH AS OTHER / PEOPLE DO
Last Line: PEOPLE DO.
Subject(s): ANIMALS; ZOOS;
ISCARCELY think
I like the Zoo
as much as other
people do.

First when I see
the elephants,
they seem in trouble
with their pants,

and then the hippopotamus
says, "Who in blazes
made me thus?"

And I observe the
chimpanzee
thanking his God
he's not like me.

While all varieties
of cat,
make me feel dumpy,
coarse, and fat.

And that's not all!
The eagles make
me stare as though
my heart would break

at the great spaces
of the air.
And why? it isn't
my affair

if hippo is a
sort of evil
joke perpetrated
by the devil,

and of all brokenhearted
things
the brokenest are
captive wings!

And yet I cannot
like the Zoo
as much as other
people do.



Home: PoetryExplorer.net