THOUGHTS AT THE ZOO.

There are crowds of surprising things about Taronga Park.

There are surprising things about this place:
The elephants long trunk, the lions grace,
The snakes that eat the frogs, the monkeys face.

The way some creatures spit and others chew,
The various stunts the camel doesnt do,
The tigers stripes, the weary kangaroo.

They say that education can be found
In merely looking up and smelling round
Among the prisoned beasts that hold the ground.

It may be true. I only see some pain
To creatures eager freedom to regain,
And not a little danger, to be plain.

High flavours, hair, great bulks of uselessness,
That narrowing space and trenches still distress;
How these may educate I cannot guess.

Children within the town are hungry still.
The tigers cost a dozen mouths would fill,
One camels breakfast pay a doctors bill.

The summer breezes with a gentle kiss
Mix the aromas for the evenings bliss,
Lest the proud State-kept stink the stars should miss.

Mary McCommonwealth
Pseudonym of David McKee Wright
N.S.W.
The Bulletin, 23
rd
January 1919

Questioning whether NSW State should afford the Zoo, located at Taronga Park on Sydney Harbor