Snack Time

Snack Time

Morning snack time at the zoo:

the gorillas emerge from their cages

and begin to forage

in their grassy, treed compound

for the delicacies the keeper

has placed on stumps, in logs,

on rocks, in trees. One female

sits chewing a carrot, two more

gripped in each prehensile foot.

Then she sets out across the grass,

carrots still sticking up

like bright, orange candles. She is wholly

nonchalant. The air swims

with her innocence,

with comedic possibilities,

as the gorilla in her grave dignity

walks with carrots in her toes.