Expectations were high
Our thoughts were new
Our plans were exciting
We’d bunk into the zoo
The fence was high
Our trousers new
And scale this height
We had to do
We shimmed over
The barbed wire fence
The arse of my trousers
Was no defence
Inside we dropped
We knew not where
Could we be in?
A timber wolf’s lair
We looked around
We were never scared
What looked back at us?
Was a buffalo herd
We walked through them
They were quiet tame
We had herded cows
They were just the same
We got out where
The public go
We viewed the animals
As we walked along slow
We enjoyed ourselves
In the zoo that day
But my mother back home
She had something to say
As the tear on my arse
It felt on fire
Where I tore my trousers
On the fence barbed wire
Then time for bed
My adventures through
Until the next time
We visit the Zoo
Back in the 1950s’ when myself and my pals Jimmy Farrell and Hugh O’Neill were adventurous without any fear we decided to (bunk) climb over the Dublin Zoo fence as we had no money to pay to go in.
I suppose we were foolhardy as youngsters and were lucky that we never ended up in any of the dangerous animal compounds or I wouldn’t be here today to write about it.
It’s funny when we think back to those days and the silly things we used to do.
So in memory of those days I wrote this little poem.
