The Marchesa's Menagerie
Borzois at her beck and call amble forth, rearing
At miniature crocodile that crawls before her.
Snap, snap go its little jaws. It bites her pearls.
Stole at her neck uncoils, a serpentine snakelace.
Peacock unfurls, albino in feather. Mechanical
Panther stalks the white foyer. Automated goldfinch
Trills at awed gazer, trilling and twittering in
Suspended gilt cage by the fountain. Boa constrictor
Seizes rabbit and chicken. Gold gazelles bedeck
Her palatial safari. And everywhere, everywhere
Roam cats of variety: Persian, Siamese, Syrian,
And barely trained ocelots, tigers, and cheetahs.
Pekingese growl at unseen spirit. Monkeys clap
And chatter, leaping from bony shoulder to shoulder.
White lilies settle like doves on her boudoir table.
Tortoise chokes to death on bouquet of tuberoses.
Towering Medusa stares and hovers,
Still as a statue, madly grinning at nothing.
La Casati glares through emptied aquarium.