Polar Bear Roll

One for the money:

One for the Money

One for the Money © 2008 Bo Mackison

Two for the show:

Two for the Show

Two for the Show © 2008 Bo Mackison

Three to get ready:

Three to Get Ready

Three to Get Ready © 2008 Bo Mackison

Four – slide in the SNOW!

Slide in the Snow

Slide in the Snow © 2008 Bo Mackison

Gray Scale

Grey Scale

Gray Scale © 2008 Bo Mackison

This big guy was one of only a few animals outside at the zoo on this chilly winter morning, though he didn’t seem to mind the 27˙F. weather. While I took his picture, he fed himself his breakfast hay swinging his trunk up and down.

I was so amazed at the dexterity of his trunk, I checked out a few facts about elephants on Wikipedia. This is an Asian elephant – only one “finger” around the lip of his trunk. (The African elephant has two.) And what I found most amazing – scientists estimate there are between 40,000 and 100,000 muscles in an elephant’s trunk. The trunk is such a finely tuned instrument, an elephant can as easily pick up a single blade of grass as he can tear down a medium sized tree. Check out the facts about elephants on Wiki and you’ll come away amazed. Guaranteed.

Milwaukee County Zoo
Milwaukee, WI
March 1, 2008

Take a Seat

Go Find a Seat

Go Find a Seat © 2008 Bo Mackison

After tramping around the zoo for a couple of hours, I realized not only was the snack bar closed, I couldn’t even find a seat for a rest.

Milwaukee County Zoo
Milwaukee, WI
March 1, 2008

Trumpeter Swan

Resting Trumpeter Swan

Resting Trumpeter Swan © 2008 Bo Mackison

Milwaukee County Zoo
Milwaukee, WI

Portrait of a Peacock

PLUMAGES

We’ve been wearing a winter coat
like drab and tired feathers
and an old beaten hat
like a drooping crest.

Grey days, grey skies, grey hearts.
Barnyard birds of routine,
low horizons, chicken wire souls.
We peck at what’s given us.

Why don’t we wake up early
tomorrow and catch the sun
in the drop at the end
of the drain-pipe?

Why don’t we sing to the moon
for a change and ask foxes
to dance their tangos
and wild tarantellas?

And then let’s change clothes
with phoenixes
and steal thunder
from the peacocks.

Then we’ll stand arrayed in opal
and emerald plumage,
in scarlet and tangerine
and pinions of azure and silver.

Then we’ll be kings and queens
among daisies and irises,
in poppy-fields and thyme-gardens,
through the bluebells
and even among the roses!

Then we are the crested emblems
of life in the air,
life among flowers,
life even in the barnyards
and the crates off to market.

Let’s never take off
these beautiful clothes.

from my poetry friend, Kate Chadbourne

photograph, Milwaukee County Zoo
Milwaukee, WI