Zoo Break Poem by Denis Mair

Zoo Break


Richard Rorty left the back forty at the age of minus one-hundred-and-nine
Leave him alone to gnaw his bone, and he'll find home in his own sweet time
Philosophy has let us fall right back into the mire
Let's slog along and not get saved by rapture's white-hot fire
The slow way takes years of stumbling and pain
Till the eyes of our world can open again
That stately place in Xanadu should be an empty dome
Where any sound can echo, any thought can be at home
The grand vacuum takes all images, but not to hold them
The stillness parts for all sounds, then rushes to enfold them
Humankind once found there its highest dwelling place
A formless sanctum to provide the soul with its own space
The menagerie in the basement kept its carnage out of sight
Above, the incense-tendrilled air was pierced by beams of light
Who stirred that lower nest of hornets?
Who riled the barnyard hordes?
Who left the cellar door ajar?
Who drove the geese out of their gourds?
Now watch the clever monkeys vault along ballistic tracks
While catwalk lemmings let off steam by doing jumping jacks
Chimps with slingshots squint their eyes and let lead pellets fly
Equations spun in lofty realms condemn the other side to die
Hairy fists are set to work by grand imaginings
The highest leaps of thought reserved for harmful fissionings
While combines of inventiveness devour a world's trees
The keenest minds are pandering, so we will sink in ease
Whole lifetimes of expertise go into arbitrage
The world outside our window starts to look like a mirage
The seedbed that nurtured us does not engage our feelings
We care more for our leverage and for our business dealings

Are these the eyes that tried one day to see the whole world whole?
Is this the mind that made a higher consciousness its goal?
Reflection needs a sacred space, but that's now occupied
The quiet loft above the pews is now barnyardified
So get set now and pull up stakes, prepare to meet...your...'NEEDS'!
In the feather-flyingest, fur-spittingest, eye-gougingest,
gut-rowelling Granddaddy of all stampedes!