THE ZOO IN THE SKY

we have observatories
full of stories in our minds
and creatures with their features
most ingeniously designed

we wonder sitting under
and we weave creative tales
of sensuous adventures
of their fur and plumes and scales

we've all discerned the shapes that drape
across the fields of clouds
we've sat with rapt attention
and described the tribes that crowd

but who devised the winding
of that astral carnival
then mapped them out, precise, devout
when some saw none at all

they created interactions
still the sky became alive
with one crescendo ending
with another to arrive

some hemispheres most clearly
had a different history
with players, zoological
involved in mystery

a pity that my city
has strong lights that dim the stars
the vivid zoo escapes my view
i can't see through the bars