Christina Lovin

Naming the Animals

And God told Adam to have dominion
and rule the earth, to name the animals
and so he did: he named them
to suit himself:
hunger hunt or be
hunted

Had dominion over them:
stalked them when he was not hungry
reveling in their writhing and agony
to prove his superiority and skill
to let them become strewn shore
wine bladder lamp oil
perfume
killed them because of their abundance
their inconvenience in his plan
pulled the skins from the living
as they struggled in terror and pain
for his own vanity’s sake
named them coat and collar
hat and feather shell barrette
comb trophy room trope

He placed them where he chose
in pastures too full
of winter’s snow to move
he deemed them commodity
until starved and parched
they simply froze in place
led them in cities where they had no business
called them commerce
as their hoof beats echoed
as they pulled his lover
in fancy coaches through nighttime parks
and glue when they could no longer pull.
in wire kennels that tore their feet
with no heat no water no food
as factories of their own young,
named them bitch and stud
tethered on chains that grew like grief
into the flesh of their necks
pronounced them cash and carried
he left them when he moved away
inconvenience to fend for themselves
as they watched him drive out of sight
left the ones who had shared his home
to become confused and lost
stiff monuments to man’s arrogance
along the highways he worshipped

And because he could because of his strength
of mind over their ignorance and brawn
he corralled them in their confusion
scattered the prairies with the stench of their deaths
and named them good as a dead Indian
called them that will show them
declared them merely hoof and hide.
stunned them to their knees
desecrated their living bodies
with electrodes and wires
ignoring their cries, said they were
impeding progress collateral damage
scooped them with his mechanical strength
from the filth of packing house floors
their udders bloated with milk
their bawling young torn from them
propped in pens or left to lie
motionless as their muscles failed
paled, then nick-named them piccata marsala
to feed his lust
for their bloodless flesh

He disregarded their lowly grace
and animal difference
He called them losing lost last
Their names became endangered extinct
never to be seen again.

So now their bones cry out from the earth
from the violated rain forest
from the defiled den and pen
from closet and ship’s bellies
from where, pinned to cotton
behind glass in museums’ displays
they were stripped
of their dignity and flesh
they moan and keen cry out
to the kind of god that created them
then abandoned them
to ignorant man who forgot their true names
which have always been
mortal
spirit
earth’s children
a small part
angel