Consider the Pangolin
My home has grown a repellent coating
My dog and I squeeze out the door for walks
But none may enter
My own body carries a forcefield
A six metre radius to keep others away
Save those in my own home
Social distancing, they call it
A microscopic bug
Reinforcing our lack of real connections
Take time to meditate, they say
As my heart cries out for others
Helpless to act for the lonely, the fearful, the destitute
Nothing I can give, nothing I can do
A tiny bug
That drives huge wedges between people
Destroys our equilibrium
Leaves us unmoored
Floating aimlessly on the sea of uncertainty
This tiny bug can not be ignored
We follow the numbers it has infected
The numbers sent to coffins
We learn to disinfect, clean, isolate
And still, the fear never leaves us
Now we seek answers to this huge change
Scientists warned of possible pandemics
While we kept living our twenty-first century lives
Finding our way in this human-centred world
Ignorant of the rising trauma to our land and its creatures
The fear rising in our gullets
Threatens to spill out of our throats
Spew itself over our neighbours
If they were near enough
Burn them with its caustic energy
This fear does not come from you
The humans do not get to own it
Stop and consider where it came from
Consider the pangolin
The bat
All the so-called exotic animals in
The Wildlife Trade
Trade is such an ordinary word
Wildlife the critters that hide away from us in the forest
The pangolin is curled in a cage
Surrounded by other wild creatures
Awaiting its turn for slaughter
Its blood spilling out in the streets
An interesting meal for a human
Consider this pangolin
No longer safe in its own habitat
Its fear is touching us.
A minor animal virus mutates
And through the web of physical connections
A new virus comes rushing toward you
In this social distancing experiment
Distant from human bodies
Distant from the normal activities of civilization
You have been given space
We have lost our way
Distanced ourselves from the pangolin
Considered ourselves separate, above, non-humans
And now
We are distant from our neighbours and human friends
Stop
In this web of inter-connected life strands
You and the pangolin are not so separate
Offer your heart to the fearful pangolin
The power of healing this vast disconnection
Is within you
And for less mature humans, notably children, who also need to consider the pangolin but in a different way:
The Pangolin
It is covered in scales
But it’s not a fish
Or a lizard, either
It curls up in a ball
But it’s not an armadillo
Or a hedgehog
It loves to eat ants
And termites
But it’s not an anteater
It can spray
Very stinky!
But it’s not a skunk
It is a pangolin
A mammal
Warm but not furry
It wears its scales
Like armour
Hard and strong
And even sharp
Long, sharp claws
Dig for insects
In the ground
Or behind bark
Longer tongue
With sticky saliva
Scoops them up
It has no teeth!
Tiny rocks stick to that tongue
Join the insects
Down into its gizzard
That’s a stomach
A tough stomach
With spines inside it
Is ready for this food
Spines and tiny rocks
Chew those crunchy insects
Help the pangolin
Be healthy and strong
I have not seen a pangolin
Just pictures
They like it that way
Mostly
They get food
When we are sleeping
When we are awake
They curl in a ball
Sleeping
Some in trees
Some in burrows
They like to be alone
Safe
Away from humans
But some people
Find them
Capture them
You and I
We learn about them
Send love to every
Pangolin
Especially when they are scared
Bewilderment
Well-adjusted was a picture
Seated in the car driving to work
Kids in school and daycare
Spouse at their own office
Each one in their place
Every Friday
Family dinner out
Saturday date night
Soccer practice, swim lessons
Each night had its slot
Or without a family
Dinners out with friends
Conversant on movies
Musicians, all that’s new
Shopping the latest designs
Then came the upheaval
Workplaces closed down
Shopping only for essentials
Lessons and games curtailed
Gatherings outlawed
The rules have changed
But we will survive
We will wait this out
Soon to be back to normal
Business as usual
This might not end, they say
You might go back to work
But no gatherings
Continue to maintain your distance
It’s a new normal
We shake our head
Try to understand
A return to work with new rules
To survive as a person
As a country
Financial survival
Well, we are the resilient ones
We survive
We learn the new rules
And move forward
Just tell us what to do
And if you don’t tell us, we’ll figure it out
The picture of well-adjustment narrows
Some will fit
Make the transition
With no fear, no health concerns
No loved ones hit by the virus
They wear masks with ease
Manage physical distance
Some will wait
Buoyed by hope
Confident the new world will hold a place
For them and their loved ones
A new world with new rules
History rewritten
Some will flounder
Ill with virus symptoms
Broke and homeless
Stuck in fear of the new world
Resources depleted
Hopeless
Look around you and inside you
Acknowledge bewilderment
You can give up
Surrender to hopelessness
Or accept the new order
Whatever it is
In hope it will save you
Or you can live
In the middle of it all
Nothing is as it was
Nothing is as you thought
Fling aside all spoken
And unspoken
Expectations
Live in the tremble
Of the unknown
Dare to find the in-between spaces
Between laughing and weeping
Up and down
Serenity and fear
Accept bewilderment
Rewild in the City
Branches, barely green,
Reveal the wind
Blowing cool air
Through our city
Birds fly past
Busy with spring’s endeavours
Mating, nesting, feeding
Early flowers bloom
Each day new plants sprout
City lawns need cutting
Life abounds
Among the trees
In the yards
Wherever growth is possible
It’s an energy
That flows
An energy that lives on possibilities
Light and moisture and warmth
A responsive energy
It lives when it can
Rests when it must
Moves on when viability has ended
There’s a gentle ebb and flow
To life in the wild
No fear
In winter’s rest
Or even in departure
That’s a freedom
You and I dream of
Our sense of responsibility
Our concern for future things
Our multitude of thoughts
Weigh us down
See the trees budding out
Leaves hungrily unfurling
Smile at the bright flowers
Reflecting the sun
Let your heart soar
And dip
With flight of the birds
Rest your back against the
Solid stillness of a tree
There is a wisdom
In the wild
A different kind of intelligence
Every leaf, every bird, every fly
Can teach us
In the strangeness of this time
Let yourself be a student
Attend the class of the wild
Anywhere in the city
Rewild the human
Fear not the endings
The changes and impositions
Grow where you are
Reflect the sun
And live
Living the Edge
Thunder rumbles
As the dark cloud mass
Slides along the sky
Just south of meIt’s a warning of danger
Nullified by the bright edge
Of the clouds
Barely hiding the sunI am living on that edge
Caught between Covid danger
And the intense brightness
Of loveLike the ever-changing sky
Life forces us into a balancing act
While we seek love and connection
We remain helpless
To outrun the dangerWe yearn for the safety
Of our predictable lives
Old patterns and square boxes
We’ve forgotten never fit usThunder rumbles
Clouds change their shape
Raindrops fall
Sun shines
I sit under the tree
In the middle of it all
Grateful for the time
To stop and be
In itUntil the brightness of lightning
Pokes my eye
Suggesting I’ll be safer
Inside
With loved ones
Unbound Soul: A Story of Mink
Mother mink darts through the water
Sure strokes propel her
She grabs a fish between her jaws
Returns to her nest
Deposits the fish
In front of hungry little minks
Too young to get their own
Mink on the farm
Lies down in her cage
Stares through the wires
No where to go
No river or trees or mud
She gets up
Walks front to back
Back to front
Lies down again
She knows she does not belong
In this world of cages
Imprisoned for the crimes
Of those who claim
Dominion
The farmer approaches
Mask over his mouth and nose
Thick gloves on his hands
He opens the cage, reaches in
Grabs her in two strong unyielding hands
She snarls, bites at his gloves
Squirms with her under-developed muscles
This is all wrong
She needs to be free
To touch the ground
Swim in the water
She drops into a dark place
Feels the other minks
Snarls her uncertainty
Teeth of another sink into her
She scrambles, climbs, reaches
Seeking a way out
She learns quickly
This is another cage
Just dark and full of bodies
She lies still
In a press of bodies
But then the air changes
She can’t breathe
Once again she must fight
This place is too dangerous
She reaches and scratches
Seeking a grip
Her body weakens
Her reach shortens
Till she falls back
Shakes and convulses
Until finally her last breath
Sets her soul free
To heal
The farmer retrieves bodies from the gas chamber
He shakes his head
Wonders how he will make a profit
These mink are infected
Even now he might have the disease
All these wasted fur bodies
He throws into a sealed container
For safe disposal
Mother mink climbs out of the river
Fish firmly clenched in her jaws
Shakes the water off her fur
Walks back to her nest
A shadow passes over her
She digs her claws into the earth
In a burst of speed
Bounds away
Eagle’s talons dig into mud
Its meal out of reach
Mother safely in the nest
Mother mink trembles
As adrenalin courses through her body
She nestles with her young
Back pressed into the earth
The smell of earth, fish, water, minks
Fills her nostrils
Deep into her lungs
She pulls in life-giving oxygen
The same air you breathe
And I breathe
One with Earth
With other beings
Even the hungry eagle
She is calm
The soul of the farmed mink
Now free
Knows Mother Mink
Knows you and me
Your dear departed ones
Free of the caged body
Unbound
The soul knows no separation
No comments:
Post a Comment