Challenging Poetry

never bored

today, I found an hour
waiting in front of a store,
with security bars across the window
reminding me of habitats
at the zoo,

and I remembered
a friendly ten minutes watching otters
circle down a slide into a pool
and then back to the top,
over and again—creating a game
out of the sun and the water
and the frenetic excitement
of being free and young
and never bored, even when
in a cage,

which means, as I watch
through the cage of the store window,
a little boy throw his shoes
and fetch them, over and again,
for forty-seven minutes straight,
I'm amazed, shaking my head
at his dedication to play . . .
but I'm not surprised,

and I know that little skipping boy
has more in common with the otters
in that moment
than he does with his father,
plodding a weary way out of the store
and home.

April 9—The animal world