At The Animal Shelter

yesterday the dogs barking
behind cyclone fencing
cats horrified, or blank, meowing

handwritten signs on cages
stating: date in,
and 4 days after that:
“date out”

whole yardful of chickens, geese,
2 sheep, something that looked like
a turkey but was probably a damaged goose,
a goat, and a few rabbits — all together,
a peaceable kingdom
of lost animals.

Poem taken from Blank Gun Silencer edited by Dan Nielsen, 1991