The Busted Zoo Poem by Robert Rorabeck

Boys sleeping in their massive trucks,
Sucking tiny thumbs:
Little boys in baseball caps sated of their
Mothers’ paps,
The school yard bums out in the parking
Lots,
Airplanes leaping over smoking pots;
And they are not here,
Where they should be playing baseball-
They do not come here anymore,
The donkey-eared truants:
They do not have to look at this self-reflective
Traffic,
The bums- the quieted gum chewers-
And they spend a good day lost out in the zoo,
Eyes amazed at the species of things that they
Never thought to knew;
And they are not dumb, but they are not lawyers
Too-
After the day is over telling you what,
They never go home- they sleep in giant trucks,
And horse trailers, and weedy easements:
No religion except for what they thought they knew
Like a species of disinterest escaped from
The busted zoo.