20160403 (family)

Of course she's thinking. Maybe that's as much of a smile as her facial muscles allow. Every limb, every feature in the proper place--of course we're related. (Dog is Andy's daughters' Cosette)

A group calling itself Meta Picture

Posts a lot of images of cute pets--

Dogs, cats, today capybaras--on

Facebook which often I circulate

To the public. They appear to share

My love of animals, particularly

Faces of young animals, newborns

And pups, the period in their lives

Before they become predatory and

Earn their wildness in nature.

Many do not realize how our

Domesticated creatures could 

Easily return to the wilderness

If we stopped feeding them. 

Quite a few wouldn’t survive,

Having been bred into lapdog

Sedentarity, whose uncontrolled

Fur would mat them into

Immobility in a forest or on

The street. They are wolves

Genetically but so far from

Their roots as predators they

Couldn’t stand up to a contest

With their brethren were we,

Their providers, to disappear

Overnight. The Dodo, another

Site that posts heartbreaking

Stories of rescue and injured

Animals who survive because

Of human kindness are so

Touching they bring me with my

Sappy soft heart to tears as I

Read or watch their videos. 

These I rarely circulate because

I often question how they happen

To be in just the right place at

The right time with a camera

And a tripod to film a man who

Lifts a young horse off a broken

Bridge while its mom walks 

Alongside. I am cynical enough

To fear these might be staged.

Those I usually don’t share. 

I am overwhelmed by the link 

Of us and the animals.

Biologists have long taught us

That the basic layout of head,

Tail, arms, legs, front and back

We share across species was a

Product of the flatworms who

Squiggled along the seabeds 

Leaving their trail of slime.

When I stare at Loki’s, Sophia’s

Faces, comparing the central

Nose, ears on our heads, eyes

Spaced to see depth, and below

All this our mouths with teeth,

Tongue, and salivary glands,

Their faces lacking the muscles

To shape expression, I am in

Absolute wonder. Their hearts,

Lungs, and inner organs mirror

Mine. They must be conscious

Selves, who look at me, who

Watch me through the day. I

Sense Sophia will take a whack

At the birds who come in (as

There is evidence she has).

Likewise Loki who chases

Squirrels as we walk. I will

Ask, “And what would you

Do if you caught one?” I

Don’t want to think he’d

Shred it on the spot. He 

Probably would, rather than

Curl up with it in a nap as

Meta Pictures would proudly

Show. It’s why I thought of

The peaceable kingdom as

My image for a warless world.

Just as we inherited our bodies

From the winnowing of a nature

“Red in tooth and claw” our

Tendency to turn against each

Other shares the same root.

c. J.S.Manista, 2016