Sense Sonnet - Pumper

Destiny - Game On

Set in the last city on Earth,
Guardian of its final fate,
Playing the role for all its worth,
Got to join in before too late.
Join in with millions to online
Unleash the pent up energies
Into the virtual design
To hook the mind in battle sprees.
A franchise touted to survive
The cutthroat video game biz,
Promising players come alive
Until the next must play me is.

It's off to dream world "Destiny."
Pay 60 bucks and let dreams be.

Sense Sonnet - Pumper

Ever Bettering - LP Zoo

Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago
Over one hundred and fifty years
Has learned from animals, to know
Better care means. Work perserveres.
No longer taken from the wild,
But born and bred and better live
In habitats well reconciled
To signals that animals give
That all are happy and content
To be ambassadors to teach
For families all represent,
For bonds that humans need to reach.

Please do visit Lincoln Park Zoo.
Judge what a big city can do.

Sense Sonnet - Tickler

One Liner Vulture - LP Zoo

A vulture at Lincoln Park Zoo,
I like to make the humans laugh.
So stand up comedy I do
For the visitors and the staff.
Of course I am no Jay Leno.
A dif'rent feather is a jay.
I take my schtick where e'er I go,
Ciner-humerous bird of prey.
There's comedy club gigs galore.
I miss the Zoo when I am gone.
Don't fly commercial anymore.
I only get one carrion.

For lunch I chewed on a dead clown.
It tasted funny going down.

Sense Sonnet - Pumper

Sunbittern - LP Zoo

A sunbittern, a bird I be.
South America fly my kind.
Lincoln Park Zoo is home for me,
A real cool place, so I don't mind.
With wings tucked in, I look subdued,
Feathers of a dull darkish tint.
But spread my wings, and multitude
Of red, yellow, blue spots present,
Which to predators do surprise,
Thinking perhaps they should retreat
From such a beast with monstrous eyes.
Fooling such critters is so sweet.

In the Bird House, this sunbittern
Has not one bit of a sunburn.

Sense Sonnet - Pumper

Meerkat Patrol - LP Zoo

We meerkats in Africa wild
Take turns at sentinel duty.
So the fam'ly is not beguiled
By predators in pursuity.
Dark circles around our eyes
Let us see into the bright sun,
So birds of prey may not surprise.
We see, alert and off we run.
The sound of alerts we make does
Depend on the danger degree.
No need for such sounds here, becuz
No birds of prey a swooping be.

Sentinel duty, meerkats do
For kicks here at Lincoln Park Zoo.

Sense Sonnet - Pumper

Flamingo Food for Thought - LP Zoo

As a flamingo, I do eat
Algae and other water stuff
That keep my feathers tinged complete
In pinkish/reddish pigment fluff.
I wade the water, head goes down,
Shallow keeled bill upside down hangs,
Sweeping my head, but do not drown,
From side to side through mud meringues,
Filtering food with pistoned tongue,
Food that is the right kind and size,
From the swishing waters is wrung,
Waters expelled - quick exercise.

Come visit the Lincoln Park Zoo,
And watch me eat the way I do.

Sense Sonnet - Pumper

Sirocco

I'm Sirocco, a kakapo.
1997 I hatched,
Was raised by humans, doncha know,
To whom I became quite attached.
I recall this zoologist
Doing a film all about me,
A human I could not resist.
I hopped upon his head in spree.
This catapaulted me to fame.
I was more than just parrot rare.
Official spokesman I became,
Focus of a public affair.

For conservation, I appeal.
I squawk for New Zealand with zeal.

Sense Sonnet - Tickler

Joan Rivers

Plastic surgery - had so much,
I'm mistaken for Tupperware.
But my Doc has that magic touch.
I pick my nose when I am there.
Money cannot buy happiness,
But sure can pay for surgery.
A motel bedsheet, I would guess,
Has had a lot less tucks than me.
And when I die, it is my wish
For Doc to do a sweet sleep switch,
No look of a surprised catfish.
Doc knows that I made Doc quite rich.

A good Joan Rivers epitaph,
"Made and remade to make all laugh."

Sense Sonnet - Tickler

Chicken Schticken

Chicken crossing the tennis court.
The referee calling us fouls.
Hen peck, hen peck the retort,
Cockadoodled from wagging jowls.
Us chickens do like to relax,
Cuz we are working round the cluck,
Making possible the eggstracts.
We get no respect. What the pluck!
The road criss crossings we have made,
Not all cracked up to be the pick,
Like eggs that we may have mislaid.
Dance with us and it's chick to chick.

Chickens with a rhyming notion,
Are well versed poultry in motion.

Sense Sonnet - Steamer

Latino Vote - Up for Grabs

When blacks first got the right to vote,
They tended Repubbie at first,
Party of Lincoln, they did note.
But in time, that bloc bubble burst,
And blacks tend to vote Demmie. Why?
Cuz Demmies for blacks don't do much.
This don't do should not pacify
Latinos promised such and such.
If and when Hillary does run,
Latinos may have traded in
Demmies' promise for little done,
For Repubbies, itching to win.

Latino vote - Hillary's take?
Hola - what dif'rence does it make?

Sense Sonnet - Tickler

Thumb Stuff - LP Zoo

As a lion, I've heard it said
That thumbs have let the humans rule,
With fingers far better instead
Of paws to use as a smart tool.
Humans here at Lincoln Park Zoo
Like to count up the human likes
That on Facebook the humans do,
A hi tech thumb text technique - yikes!
And then the likes get a thumbs up,
Thumb painted on a sign stuck in
My space - and not my like to sup.
I can't thumbs down, so I just grin.

A lion has a rule of thumb,
Humans have them but are still dumb.

Sense Sonnet - Pumper

Cashew's Party - Lincoln Park Zoo

Cashew is having a B Day
Party, and invited the troop
Of chimps for celebration play.
Upon the packages all swoop,
Tearing apart the paper bright
To find what might be hid inside -
A chimp's fav snack is live termite.
What ever's hid will not long hide.
But live termites are human woe,
So second best will have to do,
Since humans made the party so,
Cuz this is the Lincoln Park Zoo.

Posing as party food termites,
Second best - peanut butter bites.

Sense Sonnet - Chiller

Will Travel, Have Gun

We the People travel abroad.
Some because of duty to serve
The U.S. nation under God.
These taken hostage do deserve
Best effort be made to bring home.
But those of us not duty bound,
Who choose dangerous world to roam,
And know that evil lurks around,
Should not expect the U.S. to
Take risk to rescue, rescue - then
What might such a rescued then do? -
Roam and need be rescued again!

We who choose to travel abroad,
Should only expect help from God.

Sense Sonnet - Pumper

Gecko Sheds - LP Zoo

Henkel's leaf tailed gecko I be.
Who was Henkel? Who the heck knows!
Called leaf tailed I guess cuz on me
Camoflaged as some leaves it shows.
Gecko, a term for sounds we make.
We don't talk like the Geico dude.
Limbs with suction cups for suck sake.
Can drop tail on predators rude.
Nocturnally eating yum bugs.
Daytime on a tree we hang out.
Skin shed time, we help it with tugs.
Always skin in the game - no doubt.

I'm home at the Lincoln Park Zoo.
So visitors - this shed's for you.

Sense Sonnet - Pumper

Jackie Robinson West

The Jackie Robinson West team
Of little league baseball did play
To the U.S. championship dream,
And played as good sports all the way.
From the south side of Chicago,
Young black boys of hard time and place,
Two thousand fourteen - all who know
The risk of such a gendered race.
But for some innings of the game,
There was no future and no past.
Only the present was the aim,
To do the dream and make it last.

Thank you Jackie Robinson West.
You showed the world Chicago's best.

Sense Sonnet - Tickler

Bird a Twitter

The early bird catches the worm,
But that is just so yesterday.
The early bird now flies with term
Of social media the way
Being followed feathers the nest,
Egging ornithologists on,
Seeking what will fill the bill best,
With beaking news to lay upon.
Ever ready to peck and scratch,
To find the bird feed that can fill
The vast yearnings of hi tech hatch,
To send quivers down ev'ry quill.

When I come across tidbit neat,
I do get on Twitter and tweet.

Sense Sonnet - Pumper

Camera on Cop

A cop has a license to kill.
It comes as a part of the job.
Use of a weapon is a skill
On rare occasion or a gob.
The killer weapon is a gun,
To be used when the cop does fear
Life threatening is being done -
A question that's not always clear.
To err is human to degree.
Let hi tech show the truest side,
So questioners can quickly see
If the killing was justified.

A camera on ev'ry cop
Could show some of the killing stop.

Sense Sonnet - Pumper

Bird of Many Colors - LP Zoo

A golden breasted starling, I
Am clad in feathers colored bright.
Shiny black about bill and eye,
A belly yellow like sun light,
A top of head of lustrous green,
Metallic blue of back and wing,
A throat of royal purple sheen.
So golden breast is just one thing,
That got top billing in my name,
Which if included ev'ry hue
Would take a mouthful to proclaim.
Come see me at Lincoln Park Zoo.

More colors found in my nest bed.
I lay green eggs, speckled in red.

Sense Sonnet - Acher

Bloody Middle East

When the Middle East knows real peace,
Hell is frozen over for real.
Religious war will never cease.
New fights the old battles with zeal.
Outsiders from the western world
Cut up the Middle East in vain.
Dictatorships for a while hurled
Forced obeyance by fear and pain.
Then revolution rose in time.
Spilt blood is the means to no end.
And war declared that peace be crime.
The calls for peace are just pretend.

What happens in the Middle East,
Peace will happen the very least.

Sense Sonnet - Tickler

Bo and the Midterms

The Prez oft takes me for a walk
Out and about the White House grounds.
He likes it cuz I let him talk
The way he likes in leaps and bounds.
Mid term electionitis is
A weighing heavy on his mind.
Raising cash - he's best in the biz,
But Demmies are dropping behind.
The hope is for minorities
To buy the hope and change once more.
I bark to put his mind at ease.
That's what his buddy Bo is for.

Let him lose the Senate sez I.
More time to play with me - that's why.

Sense Sonnet - Steamer

Big Gov $olution

Insane asylums used to be
Preferred to stick mentally ill.
But big gov finally set "free."
Deinstitutionalize pill -
For the states and communities
To get block grant funding to treat
Mentally ill as locals, please.
Never enough funding to meet
The need, so big gov needs to fund
And fund and fund the system, so
Mental illness will not be shunned.
Big gov's the answer - doncha know!

Treat mental illness big gov way?
Look at success in the VA!

Sense Sonnet - Tickler

Escape From - LP Zoo

A kangaroo is born to jump
Out and about Lincoln Park Zoo.
I am a pain in keepers' rump.
So higher fence is what they'd do.
The more I got out, higher went
The fence to try to keep me in.
"Jump higher than that," keepers vent.
But that fence can't jump. I just grin.
And after I'm out and about,
Keepers are in frustrated state.
There is a solution, no doubt.
The keepers could just lock the gate.

As a babe, I was lazy, so
Mama called me pouch potato.

Sense Sonnet - Tickler

Raw Apple

The shares of Apple have been hit
By celebrities in the nude.
Apple security got hit
By some peeking toms hacking rude.
What's a celeb body to do!
If Apple cannot be trusted
Not to allow a peekaboo,
And the body pix get busted!
With such famous skin in the game,
Celebs will launch lawsuits galore.
Mouthpieces will be sent to claim
That Apple is rotten to the core.

Some celeb nude photos to share
Are just some bumps Apple will bare.

Sense Sonnet - Pumper

Ostrich - LP Zoo

The ostrich is the biggest bird,
And the fastest two legged beast.
Head buried in the sand? Absurd!
Human made myth that's never ceased.
I've multi lashed super big eyes,
Much much bigger than is my brain.
Might be a reason, I surmise,
I run into stuff showing plain.
Mr. and Mrs. share egg chore,
Taking turns sitting time away.
Female light colored, male dark more -
Mr. by night, Mrs. by day.

Wanna see me? I bet you do.
So come to the Lincoln Park Zoo.

Sense Sonnet - Pumper

Hyena Role Model

A spotted hyena, I am,
Humans say I have awkward form,
And be a scavenger to damn.
Like human shape should be the norm?
Like humans do not steal at will?
Humans give us little respect,
But copy us in many skill,
And are beginning to select
The female as the better sex,
To lead the future humankind
Away from mad macho aspects
That have cluttered the human mind.

I hear humans give me bad rap,
I have to laugh how they talk crap.

Sense Sonnet - Pumper

King One - LP Zoo

I am the growing rhino, King.
By human count I'm one year old.
When born, I was a puny thing,
Just weighed 60 pounds so  I'm told.
But since, I've gained 3 pounds a day,
And now weigh over half a ton,
A growing boy, what can I say!
I am just a bundle of fun.
Rhinoceros is Greek to me.
Translated it does mean nose horn.
Mine was tiny initially,
Less stress on Mom when I was born.

Here home at the Lincoln Park Zoo,
My nose horn's waving "Hi" to you.

Sense Sonnet - Pumper

Big Cat Nap - LP Zoo

In a 24 hour day,
A lion likes to snooze a lot,
'Bout 20 hours timers say.
That's my nature - like it or not.
Now here at the Lincoln Park Zoo,
Human visitors like to see
Out and about and so I do.
But catch shut eye, when out I be,
Visibly sprawled upon a rock,
Letting the crowds take me all in,
Hopefully not with noisy talk,
As I do nap and nap again.

It tires me out to be a king.
A cat nap is a must do thing.

Sense Sonnet - Chiller

The Ghost and the Darkness

Listen humans and you shall hear
Of Tsavo, Kenya where man did
Make man eating lions appear
In an encroaching railroad bid.
Dubbed, "the Ghost" and "the Darkness", two
Male lions made mincemeat upon
Hundreds of used to be rail crew,
An unheard of phenomenon.
An impossible mission, yes!
No human knew the reason why.
Just cranky lions, the best guess.
Hunted down, the lions did die.

At Field Museum, Chicago way,
These maneaters are on display.

Sense Sonnet - Pumper

Bali Mynah - LP Zoo

A Bali mynah bird I be.
The island of Bali be where
My mynah line has ancestry,
But we be birds endangered there.
We are almost extinct in fact,
Cuz human poachers grab us for
The pet trade - an illegal act.
So zoos try to help us be more.
My home, the Lincoln Park Zoo has
My species studbook so to guide
The healthy pairings of us as
Hopes grow we birds be multiplied.

At the Lincoln Park Zoo, you walk
Through the Bird House to me. Let's talk.

Sense Sonnet - Acher

Improv Beyond

Improv comedy can oft mask
Tremendous sadness found inside.
Two zanies did perfect the task.
Jonathan Winters was the guide
For a young Robin Williams, who
Would watch the master of this craft.
This is what he wanted to do.
His pain was less when others laughed.
When Jonathan died, Robin wrote
Of how and why he'd miss his friend.
Depression took his life remote,
And so Robin hastened his end.

And now together, both can be
Doing improv eternally.

Sense Sonnet - Steamer

Color It News

A fact that is quite black and white
In the U.S. system of crime -
Mostly blacks are shot - wrong or right,
And white cops shoot most of the time.
News media do pick and choose
Which cases will or will not be
For the ratings a win or lose,
And so cover accordingly.
Even if racism is not
A clear case of white on black,
Media don't like gray a lot,
And will squeeze juice that truth may lack.

Somewhere in the U.S. of A.
White cop shoots black guy ev'ry day.

Sense Sonnet - Acher

Farewell - LP Zoo

I am Anana, polar bear,
Spending a bunch of showtime years
At home at Lincoln Park Zoo, where
I've heard the joy of all your cheers.
From just a cutesy cub, I grew
Into an actress, star of show.
And each of you came, hoping to
Catch sight of me before you go.
Well now the Zoo powers that be
Are building a new fancy place
For polar bears. What about me?
Another Zoo is making space.

Goodbye to my Lincoln Park Zoo.
It has been grrreat being with you.