Safari So Good

A park once full of hooves and plumes
    Is, these days, totally unhorsed.
Its atmosphere is thick with fumes,
    A kind of Ordeal by Exhaust.

The stately ruin’s much-munched beams
   Brought bills not easily defrayed −
Big Cats! The owner studied schemes
    To guarantee a roaring trade.

Together, carnivore and car
     Have, all told, co-existed well.
 No lion yet has left a scar
     On Mustang, Chamois, or Gazelle.

 Next week, before the place is lost,
     Work starts on shoring up the Hall
So that the pride that pays the cost
     Will not, for once, precede a fall.

Jerome Betts

If you have any comments on this poem, Jerome Betts would be pleased to hear from you.