Some people called 
My whole life a defense mechanism…unfairly
I thought.  So I took the kids to the zoo
And bought a quarter’s worth of birdfeed
to appease a free range parade of contemptuous
Flamingos who looked ready to spit their wad
right in my eye; backing away in fear
I spied a pair of metallurgical porcupines
Copulating under a rose hedge. Immediately
I knew that in this insanely speckled world
The flapping flipping flopping dishevelment
Of love was just around the corner