Rain Forest Exiles

Hidden in a thicket
Of bamboo's dense leaves:
Was it to muffle the raucous
Squawks and screeches?
Or give green comfort
To these rain forest exiles
That yearn for the moist domain
Of the high canopy?
Inside cages were stacked
From floor to ceiling
With beaks and talons grabbing
The bars, clipped wings
Fanning the fetid air.


I thought I was seeing

The world with Gaugin eyes:

Scarlet and indigo,

Gold and emerald
Littered the walkways and under the coops --
Like bright tears from the eyes
of their Mayan gods,
Who abandoned them here
To become pets.

 started May 2010, finished September 2010, revised January 2011