"winter in the aviary"

[urbpan]

frozen gobbets of mouse innards
a cold gloved hand
dipped in warm disinfectant
milky with bird shit
don't jump on me, owl

Comments

[aemiis-zoo.livejournal.com]

ROFLMAO!
Excellent keeper poem. =)
I should write one today.
Or about yesterday maybe...
hmmm...

[wakarusa.livejournal.com]

you just gave me the urge to illustrate that.

Or - you are going to design the next 'zine cover with real arts materials, no?

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

I post about it so people like you will remind me that I'm lucky!

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Illustrate awaw!
Perhaps i'll have a zookeepers corner in my next issue. I've never put poetry in a zine before...

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

The weird thing is, I don't like poetry! But I'd read a collection of keeper poems. (or perhaps make one...)

[belen1974.livejournal.com]

if the poetry you'll put in your zine will be like what you've written, and maybe include illustrations too, then i say go for it dude.

what are gobbets? is it an alternative spelling to gobs? is gobs even a word? alexis?

Gobbet

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

1. A piece or chunk, especially of raw meat.
2. A bit or morsel: a diary containing gobbets of useful information.
3. A small amount of liquid; a drop.

[cottonmanifesto.livejournal.com]

delightful imagery honey.

[aemiis-zoo.livejournal.com]

I might be too tired/annoyed to write poetry today. Mostly all I did was stupid crap today anyway, not much animal care/handling. Spence and I did take the blue tongued skink and desert tortoise out for sun today. Maybe later I can muster up some energy to write a poem about transfering the tarantula to its new exhibit, which we did yesterday...

Well, hell, I'll give it a go now!

This is going to suck (and not in a good way!)

Crazy wooly tarantula!
Thinks exhibit modification is its job-
fills in water bowl with dirt,
webs itself into a cave.
I that a molt?!
oh my..
well, no, its just some mulch,
all webbed together.
Ouch! My eye!

[vampyrusgirl.livejournal.com]

I'm assuming you're cleaning up the eviscerated (sp?) after-math of bird of prey mice feedings, yes? If so, have you ever noticed that they sometimes leave fetuses? Not pinkies, actual fetuses from the mice you feed out. Now, I'm used to cleaning up the organs they leave, but why leave the fetuses? From their perspective, isn't it an extra treat? This is a comment you can really only feel comfortable making to other keepers. It's shock content is pretty high for non-keepers too, so it can be a fun discussion at parties, too. :)

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

The only time I've found fetal mice left over was in the Snapper tank--actually my boss found it, and asked me "did you try to feed the snapper pinkies?"

I figured the fetus was too small for the snapper to bother with. Why a raptor would leave it is a mystery. They gobbets I clean up are usually digestive organs, which the hawks leave uneaten.

[vampyrusgirl.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's most of what I get, too. But the fetuses are weird. I'll figure it out someday.

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Maybe the fetuses are too fatty? Our birds don't like to eat the obese mice, but I'm not sure what the fat content of a fetal mouse would be.