A LION ROARS

An enraged gent looks in a mirror,
and roars like the MGM lion.

A hair-raising sound
echoes up and down the busy byways
of Pelham Parkway.

Terrified animals escape from the Bronx Zoo.

Stampeding camels, caribou, giraffes
and zebras bound around
the lemon trees at the Botanical Gardens.

Monkeys lost in thought
tag along on the backs of the beasts.

One panicky giraffe warns them
not to look back.
He overheard a missionary
in the jungle Sunday school
say that you could turn
into a pillar of salt.

They flee across the Mosholu,
dodging drivers who think they’re racing
in the Indy 500 Motor Speedway.

One lumbering hippo
with the mud-eyed face
of Rush Limbaugh,
gets mired in the muck
at the Spuyten Duyvil Creek.

The animals rendezvous
with the critters that run free
at the Greenbrook Sanctuary
on top of the Palisades.

They breathe a sigh of relief,
resigned to snort in agreement:

It’s an eat, or be eaten world out there!