“Backyard Zoo”
Keith Gaboury

We hear a mama lion’s roar
invading our fence’s
white-coated enclosure.

Claws grow into the ferocity
of domestication

where a cub learns to feed
upon raw slaughter.

On seeded green,
sound waves
thump inside our family ears.

I look upon my son
stretching his body
towards caged fur.

When a branch slices his skin,
cries vault through bars
into a metal home.

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