The Lion Crosses The Fence Poem by Chinyelu Agwu

The lion that scaled the fence looked back
But its glassy, sparkling eyes
Met darkness
Across the fence.
When the strains of the lilting band
Filtered into his alarmed ears
He could not even roar
For he was far away from home
Beyond the fence.
The crocodile that lapped up flowing rivers
Swam off the current
Into the fishpond
Tearing its deep-pronged incisors
At its tongue.
The fishes swam to the edges of safety
While the giant lizard dug its webbed feet
In the mud of a confused pond.
The zebra leaped into the goats' pen.
Shocked by the bleating cacophony
That greeted its marks of glory and beauty
That criss-crossed the darkness
With their striped light.
No show was put on
No ceremony of the best-dressed
And of course
Neither preys nor predators
The goats
Huddled in a corner
Turned their backs on the straying stranger.
Though food kin and ruminant
They knew him not
Because this is no jungle.