Do not despise the ones who love the dumb.
Despise the ones who try to give them speech –
The cooing, crooning humans who would teach
Them, with their nonsense language, to succumb
To all the degradations of the pet –
The sweet humiliations spoken low,
The whispered promise of a vicious blow,
And then the simpering sing-song of regret …
But don’t despise the ones who love the dumb,
The ones who watch and wait and do not speak,
Transfixed by the resemblance that they see:
They see the creature that they could become,
So easily – alone, and wild, and weak,
With no words for their vulnerability.

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