Beasts

Beasts

We beasts that feed on plants and other beasts—
We all have bodies and we all have minds;
We need some air and water, sleep and food;
We feel of sorrow, pleasure, pain and joy;
We each are born and live awhile and die—
And none of us know whence or whither, why.

Yet parents rear their children, toil and care—
And children sometimes get to toil in turn.
And beings unrelated by the chance of birth
May do the same for others on this Earth.

So some of us may come to know of love
Or find some insight—or create a whirl
Of mind or matter or of both and then
Regard this as a child that we have birthed
And try to tend it so it lives and grows
Before we vanish to where no one knows.

We beasts devour the plants and other beasts
And yet we recognize the spark of life.
We know that other beings know of pain—
And so at times we act as if we’re sane.

2020 June 19th (Juneteenth), Fri.
Brooklyn, New York