The Lens to Capture Irony

Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem

She saw the cormorants at work while she

Was on vacation in a rural part

Of China, but, unlike them, she was free.

She had a tender, sentimental heart

About the treatment of most living things

Like cats and dogs and monkeys but the fish

Thus being killed did not involve her strings

From heart to pity.  Having just one wish

That day, she wanted only photos of

Herself with captive birds and with the men

Abusing creatures, men who show no love

While taking fish from throats, no thought of Zen.

  The birds are forced to fish with beaks all day

    And then she chose to be the camera’s prey.

© Phillip Whidden