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.