After the lions,
by the tattered aviary,
we can’t help but try it —
peering up and sneering
at the unapproachable sky
like clipped birds of prey,
hopping left, then right,
then left, then left,
then right again,
zigzagzigging our way
up the patrons’ promenade
in the general direction
of tomorrow,
breathing in the exotic
aroma of fate fenced —
trying hard to shrug off
the unspeakably slow
thickening of sorrow.
Michael Brosnan has published in various literary journals, including Confrontation, Borderlands, Prairie Schooner, Barrow Street, New Letters, The Moth, Into the Teeth of the Wind, Rattle, and Ibbetson Street. At his day job, he works as the editor of Independent School, an award-winning quarterly magazine on precollegiate education.
