130. free-body waits for well-polished brains

georgia’d drowned in foxes ‘fore

the last of them had reached the shore —

then there were all those apes,

that was when alarm bells rang

moses melbourne should have known

to keep them caged, all alone,

so, at least, if one then broke,

it wouldn’t cause a donnybrook

the sheep and shear, a tramp steamer,

took on ballast and some cedar

at the port of san juan scotches,

and, just cause, accepted foxes

once you carp to posting critters

there’s no easy way to quit, it’s

one or all, for animals,

so they had to take the lot

apes and african honeybees,

polecats, possums, dromedaries,

an elephant, a jaguarundi —

in fact, a whole menagerie

by the time they ran aground

the shoal outside savannah sound,

animals, so fast and thick,

exploded, almost, off the ship

moses melbourne, captain on

the sheep and shear, had not planned

what would happen if his freight

all at once a state invaded

georgia hadn’t got (back when)

all the balances and checks

to allow it to accept

an influx of exotic pets

foxes, first, swam ashore,

infiltrated swamps and stores,

soon enough demolished the

principles of democracy

by the time it’d come to apes

there wasn’t much left to save,

if there’d been before a peace,

it was over-run by beasts

this, at least, the story gave

by the fowl who feared their place,

in fact there were but very few,

and they quickly fit into

georgia, gentrified, beholden

to some pigs and some chickens —

if there’s anything it needed

it was foxes and unfreezing