Animal
In Portugal, with a plate
And a rubber-tree leaf,
I saved a mouse from the pool.
He was drowning like a person,
Like I would if the pool
Had nineteen-foot walls.
Everything was going
Into keeping his nose up.
It was hard and at one point
He was sucked into the leaf trap.
When I tossed him on the grass
He shook silently and did
Not move, like a person.
His soul had already swum.
Later the dog probably
Ate him. It’s hard for a mouse,
A sort of disposable person,
Big as a thumb, furred
With but a pat of brain:
Your biochemical cousin,
The very flesh of medicine.
Self-burst seeming
From own true will,
Your own head is big
As a bee; harder to make,
No less thirsty to live,
Still in the pool; and harder
To hoist from the choky blue.
Many a cliff and a dog
Rear up tall between
You and the wet winter,
Glorious with shining grass.
(June 2022)