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