MAPPING THE CITY: DC Places, Part II M. Lee Alexander   BIRD HOUSE, NATIONAL ZOO, WASHINGTON, DC The toucan knows he’s beautiful, says come and see my plumage fine! The emu and the ostrich know they’re tall. Blue cranes stretch forth, tossing grasses in their mating dance; the spoonbill and the heron build thatched nests. Scoff, crowned pigeon! Cry, barred owl! While in and out the bars the wild birds fly. Flocks of schoolgirls gather round a flurry of flamingos: “See how they stand up on one leg? They look like ballet birds!” So the deep-pink divas in their feathered tutus strut and flutter. Scoff, crowned pigeon! Cry, barred owl! While in and out the bars the wild birds fly. Kookaburra laughs, says watch me rid the earth of snakes! The cassowary male cares for its young. The green-winged macaw climbs high leafy branches with its bill; red-crowned cranes draw close and mate for life. Scoff, crowned pigeon! Cry, barred owl! While in and out the bars the wild birds fly.   M. Lee Alexander is the author of the chapbook Observatory (Finishing Line, 2007). Individual poems have been published in Eleventh Muse, The MacGuffin, Niederngasse, Skipping Stones, and Litchfield Review. She won the 2009 Yeovil Literary Award, won first honorable mention in the 2007 Yeats Society Award, and was finalist for he 2005 Robert Frost Foundation Poetry Award. She teaches poetry and creative writing at the College of William and Mary, at their main campus in Williamsburg, VA, and also, from time to time, at their satellite DC campus in the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace building.   Published in Volume 11, Number 4, Fall 2010.