Detail of Beatriz Cortez and Rafa Esparza’s installation at the Commonwealth and Council booth at Frieze LA (photo by Elisa Wouk Almino/Hyperallergic)
Cute Animal Pics
Half-awake doggies whisked to golden
grab, squeeze ‘em & rent for parties,
instead of having children we can adopt
tiny monkeys to keep in diapers forever,
money comes easy as feeding bottles
of milk to alligators on the Today show,
brat & beast, baking bread for kisses
polar bear slams cola in arctic tribute,
a food truck of organic baby animals
parked outside the courthouse today,
cutest little millenials you ever did see
in federal custody for being defenseless
I could just eat them all up
* * *
Nikki Wallschlaeger’s work has been featured in The Nation, Georgia Review, Brick, POETRY, American Poetry Review, Witness, and other places. She is the author of the full-length collections Houses (Horseless Press 2015) and Crawlspace (Bloof 2017), as well as the graphic chapbook I Hate Telling You How I Really Feel, also from Bloof Books.
