night sounds

island cats are hopeless romantics
they spend the better part of each night singing
tortured songs to one another and making
love until 4 AM

The birds need to work on their harmonies
and their insomnia
no one would hire this band
not even for wedding or bar mitzvahs
especially with the bird who sounds like he is
gargling in the bottom of a tin bucket

island dogs bark at shadows all night,
and dust, and ideas, and trees, and
my window
they are mad, these dogs and when they
see me I imagine they envision a big chicken leg
in their minds like on cartoons with classical music

but the worst, the absolute worst,
are the roosters that crow from
3 AM until 6
as if lazy Réunion farmers
just can’t stop hitting nature’s snooze button.