The Animals I am Greet the Day

From the jungle of sleep, I blink into day.
I stretch my foal legs in my paddock of hay.

What stumbles from dreamland, I’ll call that beast “me”.
It’s come up for air like a whale from the sea.

Some ferret has fired up the Ferris wheel sun.
The moon’s scuttled off like a crab on the run.

The mole in me protests, This light is too bright.
My eagle swoops down, gives that pipsqueak a fright.

No bird in my brain has forgotten its song.
They chatter a storm on what’s right and what’s wrong.

The mouse with its worries, the ant making plans,
a bee full of brio, a sloth hugs a branch,

A bookworm that’s itching to burrow in words.
But no book’s been written on loving the world.

A barn owl in my brain hoots, Go write your own.
These creatures will eat you from house and from home.

So take some advice from a wise bird of prey.
Be hunter, not hunted, by night and by day.

Richard Schiffman

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