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The reader visits the museum
of the poem's first home: brings in
a blanket, finds a closet, waits
till closing time, sleeps
in the poem's bad bed, wakes
at dawn to hear the insane wail
of mandrill, cry of hyena,
shriek of peacock. So that's it--
the reader says: the poem grew up
next to the zoo!  Listen--when the wind's
just right, you can hear the lions roar.



Gerald Fleming
Contents | Mudlark No. 3
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