Los animales inconcertos

armadillo, 'possum,
elephant or rat,
we are only animals
you must remember that,
we hunger and we tire,
we bog down in the mire,
we win or often fail,
we crawl back tooth and nail,
we sniff and sometimes snort,
our problems we must sort,
we walk beneath the sun,
often searching fun,
we love as well as laugh,
within a photograph,
we growl or maybe snarl,
we wither and we gnarl,
we lay down and then we sleep,
where everything is deep.

August 1978