As I was reading A Zoo Near You, Emily Dickinson’s voice echoed in the background: “If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.” Indeed, this is a collection of poetry – full of irony and passion – that will blow off the top of your head and leave you gasping for breath. A master at satire, Robert Johnson (with a chorus of other contributors) takes us on a journey into the “belly of the beast” of our nation’s prisons and shows us how justice and compassion can be as elusive and imaginary as the Loch Ness Monster. This is a collection that asks probing questions: What might happen if prisons were more transparent, more like zoos? What might happen if we did not leave convicts behind? What might happen if we weeded the gardens of our hearts and let the “flowers/of forgiveness” blossom? A Zoo Near You is not afraid to challenge its readers: if we aren’t willing to consider these questions, then “Shame on us.”