Have you ever been asked,
“If you could be any animal in the world, which animal would you be?”
This is a tribute to all of the animals that never get chosen.
O to be a limpet!
I would be a limpet.
Calcified onto the shell of a most hospitable mussel,
my tiny lung heaving within my intrepid cone,
nestled with my brethren in the briny froth,
Sipping in the seas as I pleases
O to be a terrier!
I would be a terrier.
With bows in my flowing hair,
I would announce every songbird, every passerby, every change in the winds,
with my widely set eyes and ears quizzically cocked, I would say,
There are two kinds of creatures in my world:
Those who feed me, and intruders—which are you?
I would trot on short legs
to destinations already forgotten.
O to be a raccoon!
I would be a raccoon.
Lumbering from yard to yard,
I would ignite the world’s motion sensor lights,
I would free the world’s refuse from the confines of dumpsters,
bulbous belly swinging back and forth,
full of sandwich crusts, orange peels, the contents of the shower drain,
I would travel by moonlight.
O to be a gerbil!
I would be a gerbil.
Reveling in my saw dust and multi-colored paper shreds,
running round and round and round on my wheel until light-headed,
until my cage appears to spin and spiral,
until my tiny heart is beating in my chest,
and I must rest,
and so I gaze into the eyes of your Troll doll on the other side of the glass,
both of us unblinking,
she is always out of reach.
O to be a tapeworm!
I would be a tapeworm.
Through the supple, pink, conduit of your digestive tract,
Dear host,
I would writhe, slip, lick, suck,
we would share countless meals together,
You and I,
together we would hunger.
