Urban Animal

A universe of broken glass we live in, where one false
move can make us bleed, our teeth, our claws
our scales, our quills, our venom are here
to defend us but not from plastic bags
and printed circuit boards and
mountains of cubic yards
of feces and green
house gases
and all the
other
things
new to
the hundred
million years
of our evolution
I am a possum or
a raccoon eating out
of garbage cans late in
the night, I am a coyote
looking to drink from lawn
sprinklers under cover of darkness
and to perhaps snatch a cat so I can
feed my pups, I am a rat stealing fruit
from your trees, you have left no space
for us and you wonder why we hide in your
wastelands until night to come out and scavenge
through your land fill, it is a bitter pill you have left us