Richard Schnap - Two Poems

Beastiary

I pass by the cashiers
In their identical uniforms
A colony of ants

In a line of shoppers
Talking on cell phones
A company of parrots

While across the street
Students run for the bus
A herd of antelopes

And children walk by
Holding each others hands
A flock of doves

As down at the bar
Old men nurse their beers
A troop of buffalos

Waiting for the ones
That will carry them away
A murder of crows



House of Rain

Once it was the home
Of a self-loathing beast
Chained to himself

And a bird who once flew
Clear across the ocean
Until caught in his cage

Now it is a cave
Where two creatures hide
In a mutual darkness

Waiting to see
Which one will outlast
Their dwindling candle



Richard Schnap is a poet, songwriter and collagist living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His poems have most recently appeared locally, nationally and overseas in a variety of prine and online publications.