Let the solitary red ant, struggling
up the wet slope of the kitchen sink,
find traction.
Let the regal Canada goose, leading
her gosling parade across the road,
stop traffic just in time.
And the young pink pig, awaiting
the captive-bolt in the slaughter house,
not hear the squeals of siblings first in line.
The smooth-skinned porpoise, skeined
and cut by trawlers’ nets, let him break free
before he drowns.
All that crawl, and all that fly,
that root and snuffle, dive and glide,
on wings, trotters, fins or feet—
let live—
and living show our children how mercy can be done.
—
Jane Desmond is a poet living in Champaign, Illinois. Her work has been published in Persimmon Tree, The Shrew Literary Magazine, The Intima, and Words for the Wild among other sites. She often writes about our relations with the more than human world.
