The rhinoceros of Vincennes' zoo
Its skin is a bark that cracks , it hangs around
Monstrous unicorn with eyelids of clay
Painful mastodon with no hope to change
Elder , a pen of old concrete
Old glory , a suburban hospice
Cramped , trapped in the Vincennes' zoo
A drowned whale in the Seine's water
What a pain , what a sad world
Where savannah's wilting in the shadow
Of the fake mountain of the Vincennes' zoo
In this crummy domestic safari park
Where even the king of jungle abdicates
Far away from savannah & vast plains
The lion is an old gentleman with a paunch
Bald mane , behind its wire netting
It no longer even goes round like a jailed lion
What's the point in acting like a fierce animal again
When you no longer even frighten kids
Under the aviary of resigned birds of prey
They look up without hoping anything anymore
Next to the play-actings of indecent monkeys
& A little train that kids despise
A couple of elephants hop up & down with boredom
With useless tarnished tusks of ivory
To try to ease the depression seizing them
You would need a syringe as big as a farmhouse bread
Do African children , at their place ,
Go visit zoological gardens
To see jailed animals that come from far away ?
Cats , pigeons , ticket machines or dogs
Vincennes' zoo
Noah's Ark in the Parisian suburbs
Strange sad gloomy menagerie
Where animals are bored stiff