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Christmas In Cincinnati Zoo
Fake pyrotechnics bloom inside plastic strips.
The night gets colder
as Christmas carols limp on.
I slip away from the dull concert
into the unlit zoo,
sure that among the sculptured
caves and enclosures
beasts pace their plots.
Close by a large animal looms.
I smell the weight of it, a matted moonlight
awake under a thick pelt.
Eyes spy each other through electric bodies.
A restless prowler coughs,
fearful Impressions escape their enclosures
to hunt upon dark lost paths.
I have seen enough, or rather
I have not seen but sensed,
a curious peril nosing my presence.
Grizzly Bear or Bogey beast -
hard to tell.
Behind me
I hear children still singing…
a 1000 pound Hammerhead shark
swims past my cringing mind
on its way back to an unlit aquarium.
Copyright ©
Eric Ashford
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