Many of Us Identify with Animals

Half a toy being better than 
none. A forest being better than none. 
An argot, a pidgin. And the miraculous brevity 
of small objects. A broken comb. Detach'd 
leg of a beetle. One thinks of children 
on their crutches, their encounters with ghosts. 
Of all shapes & sizes. Thin branches 
of the river myrtles reach through them. 
They move in slow groups, as if just returning 
from a war. They are trying to believe 
something they have forgotten. 
Or to make us believe it. 
In the same way that the elaborate 
miniature landscapes surrounding a model 
train set make us believe. In the world outside. 
The tucked fields, the milkman and his lantern. 
Not so much pinprick. As bezel. 
Obtrusion of the syncretic. 
Half a quantum being better than. 
A history of the papacy during the Renaissance 
is very depressing, a friend told me. 
Lumps of coal for the boiler smaller than pebbles. 
And fitted out. With pine boughs sighing. 
With microscopes. Whether zoo or 
vitrine. To attract. The approaching children. 
Who will remain silent or else cry out 
in wonder. Which is it we most long for. 
Which is it that they fear.