NaPoWriMo Day #8

 Today's prompt: "Our (optional) prompt for the day takes its inspiration from Laura Foley’s poem “Year End.” Today, we challenge you to write a poem that centers around an encounter or relationship between two people (or things) that shouldn’t really have ever met – whether due to time, space, age, the differences in their nature, or for any other reason."

The Zoo

It’s night in the herpetology wing.

A sweet, calm hush replacing crashing crush

of squealing children and their hacked-off parents,

the tapping of fat fingers on the glass.

A bullfrog listened to it all day long.

This is America all right, it thinks.

It stares across the room at its scaly neighbor:

A brown, low-slung creature clad in armor.

It, too, knows the noise. Its label reads:

“Goode’s thornscrub tortoise: It is native to

The dry Sinaloan desert region.”

Reptilian and amphibian lock eyes.

“I’m glad for this place,” says the bullfrog. “Despite

The noise that plagues us.” “Why?” asks the tortoise. 

“I never would’ve seen your kind besides.”