Sunday, May 4, 2008

Feeding Day

The skin of a new born rat
Soft as any other mammal
Hard to understand
How someone could look and go "eek"

The flash of python's teeth
Sabres and coils
Hard to understand
How anyone could look and go "eek"

Both are what they are
No more no less
So at peace with their ownself
There is no need to speak.

8 comments:

BBC said...

PROJECT UPDATE

kj said...

very nice! very true! very wise!

Jon said...

nice poem... subject matter is something i've been thinking about lately... how other creatures simply are and do not need to rationalize their world as we humans do... and how other creatures are valued more or less based on only their physical appearance, for example, how people seem to value baby seals more than cows or chickens... and why people think that pigeons and rats are dirty and eagles and antelope are clean... and all the baggage that goes along with that in the human mind... what a strange creature we are... see ya around...

Mim said...

I worked at an animal behavior lab at the Museum of Natural History in NYC, this was during college. (met margaret mead, but that's another story) - and I worked with rats day in and day out. Hated them, but once I found this tiny little newborn rat walking down the corridor of the lab. He had escaped his little cage, or gotten out somehow and was bravely walking down the hallway with his little legs spayed out, such a brave little thing he was. He was soft and pink and new. I hated to think of him as a grown up "wistar-wistar" rat with yellow teeth. I learned alot from that tiny baby rat.

Anonymous said...

Hhehhee, are they YOUR feed?

Debra Kay said...

BBC you are a braver lad than I-my projects are all episodes in disaster-but eventually they end up as what they should be, whether it is what I thought they should be or not.

I cancelled this weeks camping trip-Sunday is Mother's Day and I'm giving my mom what she really wants-a home cooked meal in my home cooked by me. She almost got a little weepy when I told her this morning so I know I did the right thing. Heh, rats will not be on the menu.

It still kind of blows my mind that I can call one thing a pet and another thing food and yet it is the same thing. Chickens leap to mind. And, as fascinating as alligators are to me, yes, I've eaten a tail or two. Even playing with reef fish in the afternoon does not dim my appetite for their bretheren at dinner time.

I'm pretty sure my beloved Great White Shark feels the same way-the trick is not to present yourself at dinner time.

Roxanne said...

oh, very nice Debra Kay - this brought such a smile to my face. "no more no less" ... now if only humans would see themselves the same way! Speaking of pets, it's all in perspective isn't it?? In Peru, when I worked in the rural mountainous area, our main course meal (twice) was a common household pet ... the guinea pig. I couldn't afford to forego ... I needed the protein, the chicken was much too much free range (chewy) and I was tired of eating peanuts.

soulbrush said...

what do they say:
life is about 'dog eat dog',
it just depends where you are on the menu!