#1321 - if I were animal

 

1321

14.viii.23

4.227

if were animal

 

if I had been, were and

would be, am – an animal

 

I mean that not-this-kind

but other model, one of its

 

and fondly when among, well then

I couldn’t tell what day I was

 

I’d never ever lose my leaves

but out of scope of knowing so

 

snout and paws, no soul to search

(just what human would say)

 

I would be top of the tree at times

and not an ‘I’ at all to dot

 

but tooth for tooth and shameless

shy meets coy

 

come feed on the hand

that holds the gun

 

that builds me out of backyard

hangs my picture on the wall

 

(white horses) and I’d fly

all this while surviving till

 

one tune leads to another

and there would be a stain

 

I’d never clean up after

but my bones are not much waste

 

I’d scratch behind and lift a leg

and this would be ballet

 

where now? where next?

no need to say

 

would I be first thing working?

would I worry for my art?

 

music might yet charm this breast

wake to the same sun, stretch

 

would I be where I am?

and how would the graph go then?

 

these wasted words no longer heard

the ache towards no tunnel but

 

faintly ruled, a flurry, gone

I would be cured all sorts

 

you, too, and of life, at last

it wouldn’t matter what you’d say

 

all loves and war as fair

I’d hunt you down, cherish precious

 

with these two eyes I’d tell

if all along just animal

 

perhaps not much of a difference at all

but honestly, think hair of dog

 

play possum, whisker it, quick brown

sly, still lazy, grunt like, slither off

 

you’d know that you were up against

the animal I am