Speak Animal
       

To wake and find

consciousness
its own depthless mirror—

I have a mouth and two
deep-set eyes

like the three dark spots
that mark the base
of a coconut

in the symbolic ritual
of humanness

my head
is not a coconut

it is
I am

in all my many limbs—
brown and covered

with long, soft hairs
like a monkey—

a feeling thing

of isolate and uncertain
origin

and pursued
as with any mortal creature
forced to live

out of context

by a shadow story
of anger and lawless force

that in me empties and fills

undesirable

is both a social
and an emotional
category

in my treedom
I hide
chattering through large

unwholesome teeth
or curl up and sleep

in the arms
of a banana leaf sling

in many languages
I have not said

the same (kernel
of panic) thing

you are
an appetite in you
that is—

and never finishes

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from Colorado Review
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