You were the animal that
trapped them with your eyes.
They killed you for them
but thought you’d try
to live through that.
They skinned alive the desert
for the inland sea.
When they saw you
from the blind,
they stroked your coat to say,
you were not theirs.
Animal,
how could you understand?
You were a story
they did not tell
about themselves.
You were the tracks
that lost your way to them
that they followed as
they went into the trees
that took them to the river
that you could not cross.