BASIC ZOOLOGY
Soon I will stop wanting things.
this is good — not quite nirvana
but on the path, almost
a place to nap, close
to a patch of clover.
For most other major world religions also,
this is right, although
I should still want God.
I am not sure what the Zoroastrians say
because my Internet access is down
and, religiously speaking, I was raised
in a forest by wolves. Wolves
do not want anything; they only need,
which is different. They require teeth
to sunder skin from flesh and gnaw
on sharp sticks of bone.
They need the long flutes
of their throats that lead
to their gullets; also pink tongues
to lap rainwater from ditches. Being concerned neither
with the lustrousness of their fur
nor the smallness of their souls, they mate
only to propagate the species.
On some nights, they sing
under the white hole
of the moon, behind which
— Kate Angus