Watching a Panda Eat Bamboo at the Zoo

The pearl light of morning

Glazes a new green on the leaves.

A breeze stirs the wind chime,

Teasing bird song from the air.

He quizzically tilts his black-and-white 
Head at the hum of a truck going by,

Then turns toward the sun,

Shifting in the dapples of 
Tear-shaped leaves.

He snaps off shoots and munches.

Between bites, he rests on his hinds,

Allowing the bittersweet to pass

Over his fat pink tongue into

The blue sky of his Buddha belly.