(Rabbits only make sound when threatened)
hearing a rabbit sound her alarm
bleats in the dark
dampness of the night
I feel a sudden yearn for
the smell of my mother’s warmth
*
(Lice can’t live without people)
without people, lice are nothing
without people, we are nothing
without people, trees are another sun
*
(Desert Jerboa douses itself in dust to fight grease)
jerboa douses himself like a monk
fighting grease and fires,
hello dust
*
(Puffins are called the clowns of the sea)
dignity
the lace-ruffled puffins want it too
*
(Baby tiger sharks eat each other in the womb until one is born)
so many tiger sharks in one womb
but only one born before a smiling moon
*
(Cats prefer human relationship to food)
like the docile cat, I am starving
up here on this mountain
but I’ll come down for you
*
(Goldfish can tell the difference between Bach and Stravinsky)
bach is and stravinsky’s not
the goldfish has always known
*
(Camels greet each other by blowing in each other’s face)
camels greet endless breath
ask nothing of each other but air
*
(90% of bees are solitary creatures)
bee, I’d love to give you some company,
but why do you turn away?
*
(Jellyfish have no hearts)
raging current mushroom floaters
hungry for salt-singed skin
jellyfish with no hearts
*
(Orangutans rush to cover themselves with leaves when it rains)
in the blackness of rain,
I can’t hide in the undercover of leaves
sometimes I am less orangutan
*
(Crows never forget a face)
I’m alive! Wouldn’t you say so?
The crow recognized me again.
*
(Birds that run into windows are often attacking their reflection)
windows streaked with blood feathers
only the mirror is a mirror
nothing else
*
(It takes a banana slug 24 hours to get somewhere a block away)
don’t wait for the banana slug
to get there tomorrow
help him now
*
(If a wolf is kicked out of its pack, it never howls again)
lone wolf tail brushes snow
keep your howl safe from razor-edged winds
*
(Nurse sharks lose a tooth a week)
the two-foot ax rests against the nurse shark’s gums
pile of yesterday’s teeth this hospital dipped them red
*
(Fruit flies can become hopeless)
burying the hopeless fruit flies today
plucked at my apple heart like my own death
*
(Voles become stressed when their peers are stressed)
vole of my own candlewick: burn until the rest
of your stress is yours not ours but when
Sad Animal Facts come from Brooke Barker's cartoons, which can be found at sadanimalfacts.com. Ikkyū Sōjun was a radical 15th-century Japanese Zen master, monk, poet, and musician. The poems above are modeled after Stephen Berg's translation of Ikkyū's "Crow with No Mouth" (Copper Canyon Press, 1989).
Cameron Finch's work has appeared or is forthcoming in Windmill, Midwestern Gothic, Across the Margin, Orange Quarterly, and elsewhere. She hails from Ann Arbor, Michigan where she has taught creative writing workshops for kids at 826michigan, and now writes for the Michigan Quarterly Review. She is receiving her MFA in Writing and Publishing at Vermont College of Fine Arts, where she also serves as managing editor of the literary journal, Hunger Mountain. Find out more about her at ccfinch.com or on Twitter.