An Animal

Black, derogatory.
How. How. How.
And why.
A feeling. Pen it in.
To form it, to make it a subject, a nugget,
To pen the monstrosity in.
To take a metaphor from daily life of what none of us knows.
To make a shape of it, imagine it,
To make of it
A thing.
To want very badly to pen the thing in,
Make it stay,
Like an animal, howling.

Copyright © 2008 Katy Lederer All rights reserved
from The Heaven-Sent Leaf
BOA Editions
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission