THESE DIRE CIRCUMSTANCES

a giraffe falls off the edge of the earth,
into abyss, somersaulting head first,
his legs running with no effect through the atmosphere.
o! how he curses himself for ever leaving his homeland!

like many animals near the end, he feels more like sand,
a handful of golden sand let into the wind,
released, separating further and furthermore,
abandoning that childish desire to elope.

but even the hopeless hope.
so he postpones himself with an oversized umbrella,
a multicolored phenomenon that he purchased a few hours earlier
at a dime store on the corner of fifth and fisk.

at the end of it all, he imagines his mother would tsk
for although he planned ahead, he hadn’t planned for this.