Typewriter Rodeo: A Catalog Of Collections

Each week, the Standard reaches out to Austin’s Typewriter Rodeo for a custom poem on Texas topics.

By David FruchterMay 17, 2019 2:11 pm,

There’s a special name for a species of animal, when several individuals of that species form a group. Some of the terms are obscure: a covey of quails, anyone? While others seem to hint at what we think that animal represents, such as a pride of lions. Here are a few unconventional names for collections of animals that may or may not be scientifically accurate.

A Catalog of Collections

 

a flamboyance of flamingoes

stands perched out in the yard

 

as a cackle of hyenas

every one of a card

 

chases a conspiracy of lemurs

a confusion of guinea fowl

 

attempts to bring a motion before

the parliament of owls

 

while a troop of monkeys

rides a bask of crocodiles

 

to where a colony of bats

hangs under a bridge’s piles

 

where an infamous murder of crows

meets a charm of foxes

 

and a gang of weasels rides

several yokes of oxes

 

right into a smack of jellyfish

and a fever of stingrays

 

like a prickle of porcupines

where bales of turtles graze

 

and so what to call a group of humans

thinking we’re the master?

 

from animals’ collective view

we could only be called

 

a disaster…