Ode to Things That Cut - Marial Awendit

I may allow you to play a wolf

Heavy with the want

To be intentionally mistaken for a dove,

And any furred bits to name you wolf

Can meet shredding fury.

*

Come wearing honest hunger.

The white dove picking things in the woods

Will not wait for you to redden your teeth,

And the tender green herbs did not grow

Into a pawed trample.

*

Fly with the kites,

Fly with the hawks,

If you wish every wolf should

Grow wings to catch birds.

*

The caterpillar boring through leaves

Is covered with so much of itself

To wear your furs, and the butterfly

Sitting upon your back will never qualify

For a goat’s red thigh.

---

Marial Awendit (21st century) South Sudan

Source: Kalahari Review