'or and animal' is, however, not of an animal.
our collective understandings of such beasts rely heavily on words, on images.
true interaction with these creatures is rare.
if and when we are approached, we pulse with a familiarity based solely on an idea, a notion.
each moment is the animal.
if i approach with caution, i falter in hesitation,
swallowed whole.
if i enter the fray,
full heart,
i ask to be torn to shreds,
a wild shower of fragments as they splatter to the floor.
those pieces are ours to share,
for us to take in,
then mop up without a trace,
filed away in a new notion
to be revisited or forgotten.