Bees buzz busily in the lavender by the walk.
Nearby magpies kibbutz, cawing locker-room talk.
The dogs bark warnings or friendly hellos,
and cats itch their backs on the driveways below,
But the rows of flowers and the looked-after grass
Are the suburban zoo's main attraction: the human habitat.
In the squared-off enclosures, human husbands and wives
and their children live squared off, by-the-formula lives.
Watch them argue and squabble. Watch them mate. How they squirm!
Watch the mated pairs fracture. They get old but don't learn.
How could they, they who live thus enclosed?
They who share precious little, that which all of them know.
Prompt: Imagine you are walking on a block near where you live, and write about everything you see. I didn't obey the letter of the prompt because once I got started, I decided there was someplace else I wanted to go with it.
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