The Animals

POETRY

By Guillermo Rebollo Gil

Yesterday he said I smelled like a chicken, and a snake, and a leopard.

Combined? I asked.

He just stared at me, in joyful anticipation of what he might smell like.

But I’m no good at this game, so I told him he smells like his mother the day of the night she gave birth to a tortoise, a goat, a goose, a sea urchin, an elephant.