The woodpecker for example

who visits the suet block

hooked to a window

was transplanted to our yard from Africa—

his gregarious hunger

the symmetrical black and white stripes

unmistakably zebra—

the German shepherd next door

is a former CEO

a corporate man whose nervous twitch

and penchant for attention

made his transition a cinch

my sedentary cat a long-haired blue-eyed

Persian is the fashion model

killed a few years back

when a trash truck capsized

on south-bound 95

my spouse of twenty years who fears

I’m taking this too far

was once an otter—his affinity

for water all summer at poolside

he monopolizes the slide

his triple-wide feet and the way

he sleeps flat on his back

book open on his chest

his whiskers twitching