Please, Please, Please Be an Animal Today

3:30am
(Birds chirping and cheeping.  We've already wondered what they are talking about.)

I scroll around and watch a video that I don't want to watch, but I do too.  I want to see what I'm not missing.
There are gaps here, in these words, for you to fill in with your story and mine.

I'm awake writing, yes, because time is free and time is mine.

And in this video, two figures sing beautifully in black and white.  And soon I'm not interested in the beauty because all I hear is technique.  I watch these bodies move as they sing and I am unmoved.  I see prison and I see fear.  I no longer see beauty in these notes, in these tentative movements.

I want animals and I want souls
I want ecstasy and death
To move through you
And through me

Your animal skin and fur
Your fangs to howl and purr
Your bodies to perch, pounce, lurk
And then rest heavy

You are not on Earth
You are in the earth
Rooted to gravity

The measured pitches are lessons learned in school, a school that made you forget your animal self
You try to find it again
Seeking teachers and gurus to free you to be an animal again

Books and methods
Words and words and words
But, my dear, animals do not read

Take your body to the earth
The dirt, the sea, the bugs
And mucky muck
And feel it on your skin

Notice how you first tighten
Then let yourself release
Feel what you feel as if your life depended on it
Because it does

Then you can writhe and moan
Scamper into the bush
No, do not sit at your human desk with your learned words
Crouch and grunt
Find a safe shadow to sit in and lick your tail

Watch. Sniff.
Thump your hocks and hiss
Sleep safely up high or deep in your nest
Curl up with another animal for warmth
Feel the basic necessity of your actions

Return to your self and your animal body
There is your truth
There is your freedom
There is your essence, your art

Lay yourself down in a sunny spot to rest and heal
Then go find your next meal
Feel the hunger
Sniff your prey
Please, please, please be an animal today.