POET’S CORNER...Bison are dangerous and unpredictable

POET’S CORNER
Source: http://www.speakup.com.br
Language level: B2 UPPER INTERMEDIATE 
Speaker: Justin Ratcliffe (Bre standard) and Chuck Rolando (Ame Standard)

POETRY BY MICHAEL SWAN

Bison are dangerous and unpredictable

(notice in Yellowstone Park)

Unpredictable be damned

Anyone who knows me

Will tell you

I am remarkably even-tempered

Just one or two things.

Don’t photograph my left profile.

Never mind why,

Just don’t.

Also

As a patriotic American bison

I object to foreign cars.

Last spring

Somebody drove a Toyota

right up to my nose

and sat in it grinning

I put it in the river.

No orange hats

OK?

And no T-shirts

With the Mona Lisa on.

I don’t like the Mona Lisa.

Never mind why.

You can stand where you like

Within reason

But don’t get between me

And my friend the heron.

You get between me and my friend the heron

You are dead meat.

That’s about it.

Just keep these few things in

Mind

And we’ll get along fine.

Oh, I nearly forgot.

No yellow bootlaces.

Have a nice day.

This poem was written in Yellowstone Park, where visitors regularly ignore the notices and get up close to the bison to take souvenir holiday photos. Bison are irritable and can run at 50 kilometres per hour, so this does not always end happily. The poem was published in BBC Wildlife Magazine in 2007.