"A Difference of Zoos," Gregory Corso

[switchercat.livejournal.com]

I went to the Hotel Broog;
and it was there I imagined myself singing Ave Maria
 to a bunch of hoary ligneous Brownies.
I believe in gnomes, in midges;
I believe to convert the bogeyman,
take Medusa to Kenneth’s;
beg Zeus Polyphemus a new eye;
and I thanked all the men who ever lived,
thanked life the world
 for the chimera, the gargoyle,
 the sphinx, the griffin,
 Rumpelstiltskin—
I sang Ave Maria
 for the Heap, for Groot,
 for the mugwump, for Thoth,
 the centaur, Pan;
I summoned them all to my room in the Broog,
the werewolf, the vampire, Frankenstein
every monster imaginable
and sang and sang Ave Maria—
The room got to be unbearable!
I went to the zoo
and oh thank God the simple elephant.