Dennis Fritzinger – My People
my people
need
forests to hide in,
trees to scratch their backs on,
clean water to swim in,
milkweed to lay their eggs on,
prairies to gallop across,
savannahs to trample,
water holes to drink at,
trees to cling to while they
construct amazing advertisements
for attracting pollinators,
caves to overwinter in,
fires to create the right condition
for regeneration and rebirth,
wood to gnaw,
cheese to nibble at,
great oceans to navigate and sing across,
branches to hop on
and build nests on,
places underground to crawl
and hide and squirm in,
moons to howl at,
mountain top rock jumbles
to escape to,
snow banks to blend into,
floods to be swept away in.
and my people need
a sunny sunbeam
and a pool of mineral salts
to visit and lap up,
and a quiet yard
to drift through, calmly,
on a twilight evening,
blinking on and off.
my people need to prowl
gallop slither roar trample
splash flash dash and just stay still.
my people need
to be.