Sense Sonnet - Pumper

Great Ape Thinker - LP Zoo

I like to think deep thoughts, I do.
Oft this gorilla girl, you'll find
Pondering at Lincoln Park Zoo.
A lot of stuff is on my mind.
You find me in my thinker pose.
Up close and personal you get.
In fact we're almost nose to nose.
No good for me to get upset.
I'm used to humans butting in.
It's just a routine that I face.
Don't let it get under my skin.
You'll go away in any case.

A penny for my thoughts - you say?
How 'bout a juicy grape - you pay?

Sense Sonnet - Acher

Molly - LP Zoo

Lincoln Park Zoo is sad to say
Goodbye to Molly, old and dear.
This tigress went a good long way
To give humans a reason to cheer.
Born and raised in her home, the Zoo,
For eighteen years she lived to be
A star with stripes in show biz, true,
And visitors did love to see.
Tigers of wild, she did not know,
But represented them all for
A better chance to thrive and grow.
She was Madame Ambassador.

Molly, triumphant tigress - gone.
But her Zoo legacy lives on.

Sense Sonnet - Pumper

Patty on Screen - LP Zoo

I hear the keepers calling me,
"C'mon Patty and do your dots."
A gorilla girl now age 3,
I'm into the high tech stuff lots.
A while ago when I was 2
I was at the computer screen,
That's here at the Lincoln Park Zoo.
I've practiced lots and now real keen
At the symbol sequencing game.
Thanks to human research, I am
Acquiring youngest player fame,
Goes with me acting quite the ham.

Part of the deal that is so sweet,
Is getting rewards that I eat.

Sense Sonnet - Tickler

Croc Full of Grin - LP Zoo

Here home at the Lincoln Park Zoo,
Human visitors make me smile,
With all the antics that they do,
Amusing this dwarf crocodile.
They move around to try to make
Me too decide to move around,
Cuz many of them think me fake,
A shaped plastic and rubber mound.
All day the humans come and go,
In ev'ry color, shape and size,
Trying their darndest, doncha know,
To pester me and get a rise.

Humans are such a goofy crowd.
Sometimes I have to laugh out loud.

Sense Sonnet - Pumper

Owl Be Like Dad - LP Zoo

I am the first for Mom and Dad.
Snowy owl eggs that hatched were two.
My sibling died, and that was sad
For all at the Lincoln Park Zoo.
But two months old, I'm growing well.
I'm gonna be like Dad real soon.
Already I've got tales to tell,
Since I "eggs"ited last June.
I'm checking out the habitat,
Spreading my wings and flying high,
Looking down from where I perch at,
Watching the humans walking by.

My feathers speckled dark on white
Will shortly be like Dad's - all white.

Sense Sonnet - Pumper

Rhinoing in the Rain - LP Zoo

I am rhinoing in the rain,
Outside at the Lincoln Park Zoo,
Splashing it up in puddle lane.
I love the drip drop, yes I do.
I watch my keepers watching me,
Getting my romp on video,
A robust rhino gal I be,
Don't mind at all sharing my show.
So watch me on the Facebook page.
In between my one and two kid,
Who says I have to act my age,
A wetter to do, and I did.

After all, it is hardly porn
To show a wet and sexy horn.

Sense Sonnet - Acher

Giraffe Tail

With a young girl, in love I fell,
And wanted to ask for her hand.
And I knew the tradition well.
Her father would want a gift grand.
The grandest gift I knew would be
The status symbol of a tail
Taken from a giraffe by me.
With such a gift, I would not fail.
And so I ventured forth and found
A giraffe with a tail so fine.
Struck, the giraffe fell to the ground.
I cut off the tail - it was mine.

It was well worth the giraffe's life.
It's tail secured my future wife.

Sense Sonnet - Pumper

I Spider on Him

A jumping peacock spider, I
Am a girl looking for a mate
That has the genes in good supply
To make it worth a copulate.
His color scheme is a big deal,
Bright and vivid, each and all hue.
There's nothing like great sex appeal
Than him sporting a stud butt blue.
Colors are not enough alone.
He's got to do an awesome dance,
To show he's got rhythm and tone
To give our kids the best chance.

Mister Right or Wrong - tiz my say.
I'll prob'ly eat him either way.

Sense Sonnet - Chiller

At Rio Olympics

Waste from Rio de Janeiro
Drops into Guanabara Bay.
Some '16 Olympians know
Contaminants float in their way.
Those who sail and row to compete
Are exposed to varieties
Of dumped pollution and excrete
Around in dangerous degrees.
No extra points are given for
Potential health hazards untold.
All kinds of illnesses to score,
As athletes do go for the gold.

How big and bad - pollution tale?
For sure, on an Olympic scale.

Sense Sonnet - Steamer

Black Elk Peak

Native Americans were here
Long before Europeans came,
And made whole cultures disappear -
The manifest destiny game.
The white men's names were stuck upon
Natural wonders of the land,
That white men's greed grabbed profits on.
It's time for right to take a stand.
South Dakota's now Black Elk Peak,
Renamed for a holy Sioux man,
Is a beginning change to speak
To a much better naming plan.

Greedy mining lawyer of yore -
Let's change the name of Mt. Rushmore.

Sense Sonnet - Acher

Gave Away the Bride

My daughter did walk down the aisle,
Escorted by one not her Dad.
A bride with such a happy smile,
For her not a day to be sad.
My daughter becoming a wife
Could not be escorted by me.
I was not present in her life.
A substitute needed to be.
A fateful happening was why
That I could not be at her side.
Good organs were donated by
Me long ago when I had died.

My daughter's wedding - I was part.
Inside the man - my beating heart.

Sense Sonnet - Pumper

Purple Heart

The Revolutionary War,
The revolutionaries had
A purple heart be given for
Fighting soldiers, uniform clad,
Who sacrificed in battle wound.
For noting blood the soldier shed,
The shape of heart seemed best attuned,
But purple hued instead of red.
Cloth colored purple was quite rare,
Owned by the rich and royalty,
So who be deemed better to wear,
Than the soldier when wounded be.

The medal now profiles the one
Who made it so - George Washington.

Sense Sonnet - Pumper

Seal Rehab - LP Zoo

We seals at the Lincoln Park Zoo
Are back in our rehabbed pool.
So good to be back home, tiz true,
And ev'rything does be so cool.
On top the rocks are lower, so
We have more space to rock and roll.
Underwater fake kelp does "grow,"
To give a look of ocean soul.
While the pool was being redone,
We shared the hippo habitat.
As next door neighbors, they were fun,
But not too much common chitchat.

We told the hippos to drop by,
But how, we did not specify.

Sense Sonnet - Pumper

Animalcules

Antoni van Leeuwenhoek found
"Animalcules" by accident,
Looking through a lens he had ground -
A microscope he did invent.
Whatever substance he looked at,
Microorganisms lived there.
Even his teeth were habitat
For tiny creatures ev'rywhere.
Excited, he wrote letters to
Elite scientists of his day,
With more important stuff to do,
So interest in this went away.

Tiz true for most of humankind -
What's out of sight tiz out of mind.

Sense Sonnet - Pumper

Coyote Howl

The coyote long howled across
The land becoming U.S.A.
"Progress" tried very hard to toss
This undesirable away.
Humans wanted dead this sly beast.
Bounties be posted in the West.
And so the coyote moved East.
Humans are not too hard to best.
Coyotes - oh say can you hear
By the dawn's early light the sound
Of howling in the human ear.
Coyotes are somewhere around.

Come listen to coyote howls
From deep within Chicago bowels.

Sense Sonnet - Pumper

Chamel-eye-on - LP Zoo

The eyes of me are upon you,
As you approach my habitat,
Located in Lincoln Park Zoo,
Small Reptile House is where I'm at.
As a chameleon, I be
Ever watching the world around.
Each eye gets rotated by me,
And independently each mound,
Three hundred and sixty degrees.
So whatever may be nearby,
One eye or another - I sees.
Just know, on you I'll keep an eye.

So watch me close and do not blink,
Or maybe you will miss my wink.

Sense Sonnet - Pumper

B.C. B'Day - LP Zoo

B.C. - congratulations, yes.
As a female colobus, you
Are a standard humans assess,
Age 30 at Lincoln Park Zoo,
The oldest colobus female
Across the whole U.S. zoo land,
A monkey that does tell a tale
Of being one old lady grand.
A birthday cake to celebrate,
To share with family around,
Who no doubt do appreciate
The ties to you that all have bound.

A Happy 30th, B.C.
You don't look a day over 3!

Sense Sonnet - Pumper

Platypus

A platypus, I am a sight
Made of this and that to behold.
Some say that I do look a fright,
With so much weird into me rolled.
I have a duck like bill that will
Electrify, so to detect.
A beaver like tail used with skill
To navigate, all furry decked.
I have webbed feet for water stalk.
I can elect water or land.
And on the land I knuckle walk.
Humans wonder - was this all planned?

When Mother Nature made me be,
A lot of spare parts became me.

Sense Sonnet - Pumper

Tiger Day - LP Zoo

International Tiger Day,
July twenty ninth, humans choose,
Hopefully try to find a way
To save us tigers - spread the news.
This tiger here does try to do
My part as ambassador,
As a guest at the Lincoln Park Zoo,
So humans might better learn more.
Though solitary tigers be,
I gladly do extend my paws,
So that humans better know me,
And save tigers - a worthy cause.

International Tiger Day,
If it helps, then hip hip hooray!

Sense Sonnet - Pumper

Budi

I am Budi, orangutan,
And the subject of a new book
By some fifth graders with a plan
To give my case a closer look.
When I was born, my life went bad.
Orphaned, I was about to die.
Human "rescue" was all I had.
Caged as a pet I just got by.
But other humans intervened,
And now my life is going well.
Needed awareness is convened.
A lot of hope we kids can tell.

The ties of caring ever bind.
My thanks to kids of humankind.

Sense Sonnet - Pumper

Role of Pole - LP Zoo

The Primate House, Lincoln Park Zoo,
Come visit this lemur and see
The acrobatics that I do.
Indeed, you'll be amazed at me.
The keepers provide swaying poles,
And fix tree branches upon so
I might achieve instructive goals
With feats of cling and swing to show.
Come visit me, there is no charge
For you to have this precious chance
For your amusement to enlarge.
This lemur does a rave pole dance.

When you check out my habitat,
A leapin' lizard - I be that.

Sense Sonnet - Pumper

Being Cool - LP Zoo

I do love the Lincoln Park Zoo,
But the Small Mammal House gets hot
In Chicago summer, it do.
So I look for options I've got.
Humans make lots of gadgets, so
I just have to find the right one
That's able to make cool air blow,
And get a cooling off job done.
I search throughout the habitat
And find an air duct that for sure
In front of I will hang out at,
And let the cool blow through my fur.

For this here sloth there be no doubt
I hang my hope on chilling out.

Sense Sonnet - Pumper

Begin on Call - LP Zoo

Red Panda cub, just one month old,
Getting used to a world brand new.
Humans - part of the deal I'm told
By Mom at the Lincoln Park Zoo.
And so it came as no surprise
When I was wakened up from snooze,
With loads of sleep still in my eyes,
For first of many show debuts.
Some selfie, not myself, did take
Some pictures for the Facebook file.
Now back to bed for baby's sake.
I did my best to show a smile.

Humans can be bothersome, yes!
Red pandamonium, I guess!

Sense Sonnet - Pumper

Spa Time - LP Zoo

The Lincoln Park Zoo is a lot
Like being pampered in a spa.
This pygmy hippo's skin has got
A tendency to get rubbed raw.
And so in soothing waters, I
Skinny dip so to moisturize.
A lot  of visitors come by
With "look at that stud" in their eyes.
And healthy skin does up the chance
That I'll exude more sex appeal,
And do better with my romance,
As my girlfriend knows how I feel.

A soak is sweet for this hippo.
I do like soft skin - doncha know!

Sense Sonnet - Chiller

Who Danced With Me

My Daddy was a preacher man.
I wanted to go to a dance,
But Daddy's answer was a ban,
Said the Devil wanted a chance
To turn a young girl to his charm.
But I snuck out in my best dress.
How could a dance cause any harm?
A handsome  man approached, and yes,
Asked me to dance, and off we spun,
Dancing around and 'round and 'round.
Oh, I had never had such fun,
Unaware of where I was bound.

The Devil danced me down to dwell
Forever in the depths of hell.

Sense Sonnet - Pumper

Think Drink

A thirsty crow did come upon
A jug with some water inside.
But the neck of the jug, doggone,
Was too narrow, as the crow tried,
But failed to get in his whole head.
The jug, the crow then tried to tilt.
Too heavy, the jug stayed its stead.
So how to get the water spilt,
The crow did ponder for a while,
Then dropped in pebbles found nearby.
The water rose, the crow did smile,
And drank as the water rose high.

Water's a solution to drink.
Most solutions we need to think.

Sense Sonnet - Chiller

The Tingler

Some humans host a parasite
That's found upon the human spine.
When the human is filled with fright,
Tiz then the parasite does dine.
A human scream does cease the feast.
The parasite goes back to sleep.
There is no way to rid the beast.
Only screaming out loud will keep
The parasite from causing death,
Crushing the human spine to make
The human lifeless without breath.
So scream out loud for your life's sake.

When down your spine tingling appear,
The Tingler does feed on your fear.

Sense Sonnet - Tickler

Goat Get Up

Doc Brinkley said he had a cure
For my sexual impotence.
So I said do proceed for sure,
Even though it did sound nonsense.
Insert a goat gonad into
My own to give me extra zeal,
And I would be able to do
Wonders with renewed sex appeal.
By golly, I feel Doc was right.
My performance is going strong.
Mind over matter does have might.
If the cure works, it can't be wrong.

I do feel like the Greek god, Pan,
Randy romper - half goat, half man.

Sense Sonnet - Tickler

Ear Full - LP Zoo

I've always got an ear out to
Hear what is being said around
My home at the Lincoln Park Zoo.
Gossip about me does abound.
This fennec fox, without a doubt,
Hears ev'rything both far and near.
Nothing goes in one ear and out.
I keep whatever I hear here.
I like being in open air.
There be for me no sound soundproof.
From ev'ry side be here or there,
From underground or on the roof.

I hear you talking about me.
My ears are burning as can be.

Sense Sonnet - Pumper

Mitochondrial Eve

I am Mitochondrial Eve,
The most recent woman from whom
All living humans did conceive,
And tied as coming from my womb.
Two hundred centuries ago
Was when I did live, give or take,
In East Africa, maybe so.
Exactitudes are hard to make.
The only woman I was not,
But lineages all meet in me.
So whatever genes you have got,
A lot of me is who you be.

Look deep inside of each to find
The common bond of humankind.

Sense Sonnet - Pumper

Deep Sea Sponge

A long, long time I've been around,
Hanging out in the ocean deep.
Onto a rock my body's bound,
And constant water flow does keep
Me filled with food and oxygen,
While removing my waste away.
I can reshape me now and then
For new perspective, one might say,
Moving around jelly like cells
Which keep my good in and bad out.
It all works for me as time tells.
Life for this sponge - simple, no doubt!

So how old am I - can you guess?
Eleven thousand years old - yes!