Feeding Ritual
The wild have saved for us
what we’ve hurried to abandon
the jerky walk of small birds
on a fence toward a loaded feeder
after an airy arrival so rapid
we’d miss it if we had to look up
the walk, the feeding is lunges
with pauses to regroup between
lunge-and-stop, or stop-and-lunge
neither favored with priority
we are all flow with no pauses
have had to invented pauses
for coherence, for meaning
for communication
word-markers the flow has none of
but thinks it’s ‘progress’, it’s ‘modern’
with no wild in it except as hidden
sped over in flight as if
no wing-strokes were needed
as if nothing were at work
companionable cows stand for hours
chewing, moving heavy and slow
between mouthfuls, pretending
to be tame to let us believe we are.
The Dog Star 
2 Responses to “Feeding Ritual”
I like this a lot: cows stand for hours
chewing, moving heavy and slow
between mouthfuls, pretending
to be tame to let us believe we are
Thanks Craig! BTW, I think your recent poem, The Flood, is a breakthrough.