These are poems about animals by Michael R. Burch.
Ballade of the Bicameral Camel
by Michael R. Burch
There once was a camel who loved to hump.
Please get your lewd minds out of their slump!
He loved to give RIDES on his large, lordly lump!
***
Don’t ever hug a lobster!
by Michael R. Burch
These are poems about animals such as ants, canaries, ducks, dromedaries, elephants, hippos, rhinos, mockingbirds, pelicans and ravens.
The Hippopotami
by Michael R. Burch
There’s no seeing eye to eye
with the awesomely huge Hippopotami:
on the bank, you’re much taller;
going under, you’re smaller
and assuredly destined to die!
***
On the Horns of a Dilemma (I)
by Michael R. Burch
At one time, you walked by my side, trotting faithfully as I held a treat. But now when I look down, you are gone; you are nowhere about my feet. I glance around for your sweet face, with those eager brown eyes awaiting. You’re usually at the door, or sleeping in your bed, and this time I find myself debating—Did you somehow escape? Did I lock the gate?—but then I suddenly remember. Your life had ended, and you ascended, on one warm day in November.
The animal we are
reserves just rights
to complain -
empty bellies,
crotch urgencies,
skin withers,
fur falls,
encroached territories -
It's undertow that matters. - Jango Kammenstein
Dear Friedrich,
I am the man most pursued in last night's dream.
That emaciated thing at my back keeps tracking me.
I remain just out of reach. Classic. Even there
The flower in the glass peanut bottle formerly in the
kitchen crooked to take a place in the light,
the closet door opened, because I used it before, it
kindly stayed open waiting for me, its owner.
I began to feel my misery in pallet on floor, listening
to music, my misery, that's why I want to sing.
The room closed down on me, I expected the presence
of the Creator, I saw my gray painted walls and
ceiling, they contained my room, they contained
me
as the sky contained my garden,
I opened my door
I
To the cities I came in a time of disorder
That was ruled by hunger.
I sheltered with the people in a time of uproar
And then I joined in their rebellion.
That's how I passed my time that was given to me on this Earth.
I ate my dinners between the battles,
I lay down to sleep among the murderers,
I didn't care for much for love
And for nature's beauties I had little patience.
That's how I passed my time that was given to me on this Earth.
The city streets all led to foul swamps in my time,
To sum up all, I'm old -- and that's
A fact the years decide;
It is a common thing with cats
And not a thing to hide.
But to feel what it is -- how kind
How true to love and law
For this you must be quite resigned
And not avoid its paw.
It does not come as reckless foe
A shrinking prey to take,
But with soft footstep that we know
By comfort in its wake.
Though it spoils something -- that is true,
Which we must learn to lack
And takes alike from me and you
What never does come back.
You, darkness, that I come from
I love you more than all the fires
that fence in the world,
for the fire makes a circle of light for everyone
and then no one outside learns of you.
But the darkness pulls in everything-
shapes and fires, animals and myself,
how easily it gathers them! -
powers and people-
and it is possible a great presence is moving near me.
I have faith in nights.
Across a continent imaginary
Because it cannot be discovered now
Upon this fully apprehended planet—
No more applicants considered,
Alas, alas—
Ran an animal unzoological,
Without a fate, without a fact,
Its private history intact
Against the travesty
Of an anatomy.
Not visible not invisible,
Removed by dayless night,
Did it ever fly its ground
Out of fancy into light,
Into space to replace
Its unwritable decease?
Ah, the minutes twinkle in and out
And in and out come and go
One by one, none by none,