HERD IMMUNITY
Wild goats were spotted wandering around the seaside Wales town of Llandudno after businesses were closed down due to Great Britain’s coronavirus lockdown. In other parts of the world, wild animals have also been seen enjoying human absence. www.cnn.org/2020/04/02/uk/sheep-mcdonald’s
Goats stride down a Wales
seaside town’s stone sidewalks
as if they owned the place.
Shuttered cafes, sweater
merchants and booksellers
a backdrop for their march.
Kangaroos Down Under
bounce through city streets
in Adelaide, joeys
snugly in their pouches.
They pass by shuttered banks
in search of useful greens.
Wild turkeys have arrived
at Harvard Yard. No need
to await acceptance
letters, rafters of birds
lounge and preen, not unlike
those now-vanished humans.
Boars in Barcelona
trot along Las Ramblas.
Their tusks uproot boxwood
plants still at rest beneath
bright red awnings shading
emptied tapas bars.
How fitting, they all seem
to proclaim, to re-take
these streets. They remember
how meadows once flourished in
these places. How nimbly
they once found tender shoots
of new grasses, daisies,
alfalfa sprouts, pastures
undisturbed. They have no
proximity concerns.
They’re searching for golden
dandelion coronas.