Imagine we could forget
everything we know
about wolves
Then imagine a wolf
walks through a wooded side lot
to a back yard
sits, ponders
and steals a baby
The police come too late
identify the hair found
as that of a wolf
that indeed it is the baby's blood on the gym-bo-ree
the police find a wolf
shoot it
& hang the carcass
outside the town hall
so everyone can see
how wrong it is
to kill a baby
say that instead when the wolf was found,
it was verified as the wolf that killed the baby
& was caged
brought to the San Diego Zoo
& kept in back for no one to see
ever again
it was never fed red meat again
the earth tones and breezes of the forest
became carbon, steel and mildew.
instead of a stream,
it drank from an antiseptic stainless bowl
half filled once a day
say the wolf understood why it was in the cage
that eating the baby was wrong
& because of what it did,
the wolf knew it would never see the moon again
that it's howls to the invisible pull of everything it knew would never be answered
except by an echo of steel and concrete
an echo answering that it would indeed die
in the cage�
Lets say a wolf wasn't a metaphor for man�
Lets say your name is Shawn Allen Berry,
Lawrence Russell Brewer,
or John William King
who on a warm June night
chained James Byrd Jr. to the bumper of a pickup truck
dragged him for three miles along a bumpy
country road
until his right arm, head and neck were torn off by a culvert
Lets say in order to kill you
we have to Kill Mumia Abu Jamal
Let's say you're Mrs. James Faulkner & you've been waiting 18 years for peace and closure
Imagine killing the wolf
brought back the baby.
