Zoo Break

Zoo Break Richard Rorty left the back forty at the age of minus one-hundred-and-nine Leave him alone to gnaw his bone, and he'll find home in his own sweet time Philosophy has let us fall right back into the mire Let's slog along and not get saved by rapture's white-hot fire The slow way takes years of stumbling and pain Till the eyes of our world can open again That stately place in Xanadu should be an empty dome Where any sound can echo, any thought can be at home The grand vacuum takes all images, but not to hold them The stillness parts for all sounds, then rushes to enfold them Humankind once found there its highest dwelling place A formless sanctum to provide the soul with its own space The menagerie in the basement kept its carnage out of sight Above, the incense-tendrilled air was pierced by beams of light Who stirred that lower nest of hornets? Who riled the barnyard hordes? Who left the cellar door ajar? Who drove the geese out of their gourds? Now watch the clever monkeys vault along ballistic tracks While catwalk lemmings let off steam by doing jumping jacks Chimps with slingshots squint their eyes and let lead pellets fly Equations spun in lofty realms condemn the other side to die Hairy fists are set to work by grand imaginings The highest leaps of thought reserved for harmful fissionings While combines of inventiveness devour a world's trees The keenest minds are pandering, so we will sink in ease Whole lifetimes of expertise go into arbitrage The world outside our window starts to look like a mirage The seedbed that nurtured us does not engage our feelings We care more for our leverage and for our business dealings Are these the eyes that tried one day to see the whole world whole? Is this the mind that made a higher consciousness its goal? Reflection needs a sacred space, but that's now occupied The quiet loft above the pews is now barnyardified So get set now and pull up stakes, prepare to meet...your...'NEEDS'! In the feather-flyingest, fur-spittingest, eye-gougingest, gut-rowelling Granddaddy of all stampedes!