[Tim Murphy]

Visions of the Serengeti

When Mutual of Omaha supported
nature shows, it spared us sex and gore.
We stared as peacocks preened and rhinos courted,
then later saw the litters--nothing more.
The mother wombats would protect their young
(just as insurance agents do for you)
and Marlon would relax while Jim's life hung
in balance, for his dartgun's aim was true.
I watch new nature shows now with my spaniel.
She wags her tail as jackals disembowel
the wildebeest of The Discovery Channel,
then warns off flapping vultures with a growl.
Her rapture grows until the carnage stops,
then she considers me, and licks her chops.

[Tim Murphy]

As an insurance agent, and a Wild Kingdom veteran, one who trains dogs and is proficient with firearms, I must say I am endlessly delighted by this poem. Once Alan and I were watching a televised bobcat leap to catch a dove in a mesquite. Our much missed Boots, who was then a kitten, was utterly transfixed. Literally tried to crawl into the tube and help out its wild soul-mate. This is the work of an extremely accomplished poet who, like Gwynn, has learned to blend our vernacular into the broth of popular culture and come up with a rich stew. Oh, bad metaphor! It is a sonnet whose panache and accomplishment simply astonish me.

[Rhina P. Espaillat]

I've loved this poem for years, for the wild gleam in its eye, and the mischievous intelligence behind that. There's no improving on it, especially those wicked final lines! I enjoy the poet's identification with the animal, too: they're both licking their chops.

[Tony]

Delightful poem, and it brings back some memories; I always loved the way they built in their insurance pitch: "Just as the marmoset takes care of her young, Mutual of Omaha will take care..."

You forgot the “capture stick,” though: The pole with a noose
Like the “Bad Animal Catching Machine,” a la Seuss.

--Tony

[Kate Benedict]

O just a superb piece of light verse! Yum! Funny, true, with great imagery and sonics.

A fine example, too, of how we can make poems out of popular culture. I've met, and read interviews with, poets who complain loudly about television and say they never watch it -- but what opportunities they miss!

[diprinzio]

Hi Tim,

"While Jim's life hung in balance..." I could just see this being critiqued on the boards and someone saying, "Uhh, the expression is, hung in the balance". Why is this okay---besides the fact that you think the writer so good as to be above the law (so to say)? Do you think it is a flaw in the poem? a little flag of surrender saying, "I couldn't use the normal phrase?"

Curious Greg

[nyctom]

I think Marlon Perkins is a hoot--how he always sat back and let Jim do everything is right on the money (though I agree with Greg that the missing "the" did cause my ear to stumble as well).

The only thing I would have suggested is a more over-the-top title, almost like a parody of those James Wright-esque epics.

Thanks for the giggle.

[Rhina P. Espaillat]

I didn't even think of that "in balance" as short for "in the balance," and didn't picture a scale at all. I thought of it as adverbial, evenly poised over life and death.

[diprinzio]

I doubt very much if the well-known expression, "hung in the balance" ever refers to "scales"; it's usually always used figuratively.

[This message has been edited by diprinzio (edited March 24, 2003).]

[Michael Juster]

Thank you everybody for your kind comments. I get a private chuckle from this poem becuse I spent twelve years trying to break into one of the famous journals I'd been reading all my life. I was very sure that if I were to ever succeed, it would be with an ambitious poem of distilled heartache. Instead, the poem that let me in was this silly little sonnet about sitting on my sofa watching bad TV with my dog. I even remember thinking how ridiculous it was to send it in with the more somber pieces...