Sipping a Rasputin stout,

hoping for animal inspiration,

I watched the household pet,

a Japanese bobtail cat leap

from four-paw standing to

mid-air leap on a moth quest.

She stood tall on two paws

her ears spread wide apart

with aggravated intent.

She looked like a gazelle

and a giraffe, tall and swift;

then I remembered the zoo,

when I braved the school bus,

field trip mom amid 3rd graders.

 

An African gerenuk, goofball

of the Savannah, big eared,

whistle mouth, tongue clicker

that stood hind leg tall in the

branches seeking choice leaves.

While the cheetahs and lions

drew the crowds, the tree

dancer oddity, half breed

or so it seemed, of flight

and height, panic and poise

stole my attention, ever the

soft touch for the under dog.

 

And hard as I tried to bring

the children to her windowed

habitat, they didn’t understand.

“That’s weird,” my own daughter

declared, and I contented myself,

alone in my fascination for freaks,

to have learned about this wonder.