The Animal Song

This is an animal that needs to be trapped
with its fireplace pelt and its bulging frame
with its mimic cries and its fat thick name
This animal needs to be trapped and tamed

This is an animal needing a cage
with its long reach and hoarseness and rape and disease
with its cavalier blubbering face full of lies
This animal needs to be taken and held

This is an animal that must come from here
with our painted-over history and veneer on our God
with our love for the surface and our hate for the horses
we used to get here then shot and consumed

This is an animal on a stage we provided
This is an animal foaming with contagion
This is an animal that needs to be caged
This is an animal we bred for our needs