ZOOKEEPER
(For Peter Greenaway)

What is a zebra?
White with black or black with white?
Which animal buries its head in the sand
when the fear twists round its neck?

I'll get to these questions
when I lock you away.
I'll watch you pace on all fours
while the dollars stampede in.

You'll suck them in like quicksand.

And despite my position outside the bars,
one look at you and I've already drowned.

When the angelfish go
I watched them decay
through the time lapse lens.

Not quite financial magnets but
precious enough. The kids loved them.
The maggots even more so.
Albeit they'll eat anything;
'tis a compliment.

Your new home:
The Obscene Animals Enclosure.

I'll watch you strut.
I'll watch you pine.
I'll watch you fuck.
I'll watch you die.

When the snails settle I shall join you.
Together at last
as we travel
back to
nought.