The Docent at the Zoo

Donal Mahoney

The docent in the peach cloche hat

leads the rest of us

around the rhino into better light.

She leads us to the guardrail

at the supper hour to watch

the keeper reach inside

the large glass case.

The docent wants us all to see the rat

delight the python.

Donal Mahoney, a native of Chicago, lives in St. Louis. He has worked as an editor for The Chicago Sun-Times, Loyola University Press and Washington Univesity in St. Louis. His poems have been published in or accepted by The Wisconsin Review, The Kansas Quarterly, The South Carolina Review, The Beloit Poetry Journal, Commonweal, Public Republic (Bulgaria), Revival (Ireland), The Istanbul Literary Review (Turkey), Tipton Poetry Journal, Poetry Super Highway, Pirene's Fountain (Australia) and other publications.

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