Poetry: Every Animal is Your Mother —Ish Klein

Every Animal Is Your Mother

There’s a park in the West where

Grizzly Bear is eaten
by no one. They will eat
rodents, insects, elk, calves
carrion, pine nuts, large
mammals, berries, roots, and
grasses. They are ready.

rivers wish to take the rings.

Black Bears eat rodents,
insects, elk, calves, pine nuts,
grasses, carrion, berries
and a plant we’ve not met.
Black bears may live inside
wolves, grizzly bears, mountain-

Not happy. Not not happy.

lions and humans as
food. To be eaten by
a grizzly bear if you
are a Black Bear, well, I
just think that’d be weird: Bears!
Doing it their own way.

And outside the wild range.

Elk eat grasses, sedges
aspen bark, aquatic
plants and shrubs. They must run
from wolves, grizzly bear, mountain
lions and humans. How they keep
going is a wonder.

Those caught wish to return home.

The Red Foxes eat beetles
grasshoppers, grains, berries
crickets, nuts, mice- not all
at once- they hide some for
later like you and me.
They are prey to bobcats.

To be alive for instance.

lynx, mountain lions and
wolves. The Red Fox tells
their pups they are the best
pups when they feed them
rabbits, birds, turtles, eggs,
and even the road kills.

Life rises around bars briefly.

The Beaver eats grasses,
sedges, inner tree bark that’s
the list! Meanwhile,
wolves, bears, scavengers
and humans will eat them!
They deserve a refund.

It’s all bars until you can leave.

Bighorn Sheep eat grasses
and shrubby plants perhaps
they do not sweat the wolves,
coyote, and humans
who will eat them. The Sheep
see it as their next phase.

I remember what I love

Mountain Lion eat elk.
mule deer, and small mammals.
Nothing listed eats them.
They are in ultimate phase
before becoming or
eating a human spoor.

Independent, independent

We don’t exactly know how
the brain works. The Snow
Shoe Hare eats conifer
needles and shrubs. They’re prey
to lynx, foxes, bobcats,
great horned owls, coyote

Situation situation.

Enfolded in this way,
some may think the Snow Shoe
Hare is effed. On the run
all the time. Their debts or
obligations rising
over them on the grass.

Is freedom a loving state?

I do not! Buds and Twigs
are eaten by Snow Shoe
Hares, and by moose, deer, elk
and beavers. Buds and Twigs
seem to be trying to
help or end in a bear.

Is loving a freedom state?

We wish to go to Space!
Not everyone. Cultured
fruits are et in space. Bears,
birds, foxes, deer, insects,
and coyotes will put
wild fruit in their guts.

All material has will.

Aspen is food to elk,
beaver, insect and that’s
all. Paper is their nightmare.
Veneer of mixed years
subject to a meaning.
Post life experience.

Shifts within and out: lightening.

Grasses who rule the dirt
are eaten by elk, deer,
bears, moose, rodents and insects.
Young Grass on the mountain
wasting them poisons air
and water for humans.

From Light my mind starts again

Snakes eat small rodents, fish
salamander, frogs, worms,
insects and tadpoles. They
are et by fish, birds, and
carnivorous mammals
while being undidactic.

From Light I remain myself.

Birds are eaters of seeds,
insects, berries and fish.
They’ll be et by other
birds and carnivorous
mammals and snakes. The squirrels
and weasels eat their eggs.

Flooding Light: flooding edge light-

Aquatic Insects eat
aquatic insects- others and
detritus. They are
food to amphibians,
fish and birds. What they feel
is known only to them?

The small coils in square mines.

The Eagle eats fish, ducks,
and carrion. Eating
the dead has made them a
majestic question, right?
They live in my state too.
Outrageous to song birds.

Rising, rising, rising.

The Ground Squirrel loves to eat
fungi, roots, leaves, bird’s eggs,
buds, insects, carrion,
seeds and nuts. The foxes,
owls, badgers, weasels, hawks
and coyotes eat them.

Completion for every being.

Do you love a Ground Squirrel?
I do not. Do you love
a Flying Squirrel? I do.
I am a nut. The love
is associative. Aspens
are right but I must live!

I must only move towards life.

Deer eat shrubs, conifers,
aspen and grasses. If
they will be eaten, it
will be by humans, bears,
wolves, coyotes, mountain
lions. That’s what they want.

Sometimes it is stupid:   life!

Terrestrial Insects
eat plant material
other insects and blood.
Rodents, weasels, foxes,
martens, coyotes, fish,
bears and birds eat them- good.

The strings are tiny engines.

The Pika eat grasses,
conifers, sedges, twigs
and lichen. Who will eat
them? Coyote, hawks, pine
martens. Do they know the
Pika eat it’s own spoor?

Trust. Trust? Trust! Trust- Trust…

It’s important for health.
We must learn how the brain
works. Manage emotions.
The Glaciers are out there.
How near are we to them?
Our brains are in this earth.

Ancient ghosts are no one’s friend.

Weasels eat rodents, snakes,
ground squirrels, insects, birds, frogs,
eggs and they can have fun.
Even though coyote,
hawks, owls, and fox eat them.
Humans are excluded

Who is holding who here?

for what they have done they
have no fun. To trap a
being and take his or
her fur. You have no fun
if you are to do that.
Good luck having no fun.

Do you prefer to eat ants?

River Otters- a crown
of recreation- they
eat fish, frogs, young muskrat.
They are trapped by humans
for fur. The humans pay
and are not allowed to play.

To share is to be respectful.

Learn the world. The words
are not straight. Pine Marten!
lately eating eggs, birds,
rodents, hares, insects, shrews,
berries. Owls may eat them
and humans trap for fur-

I specifically say fur-

Shrews and Moles mainly eat
insects. They are food to
foxes, owls, coyotes
and hawks. Who will digest
the shrew’s hands and nose? Who?
Recordings in the mouth?

Your shape is Bear Shape— upright

Mice eat seeds. That’s all they
listed. Mice are very
intelligent which makes
them taste good to owls, hawks,
foxes and coyotes.
They are a supplement.

sometimes but mostly all fours.

Yellow-bellied Marmot
are just omnivorous.
They live in colonies.
Coyote, fox and bears
get their greens by eating
Marmot stomachs and tubes.

Shoulders roll, feet point in

Coyote eat ground squirrels
with pride and carrion—
small mammals, birds and deer.
Only wolves seem to want
to eat them. Perhaps it’s
like silencing a card

There is nothing up my sleeves.

or clown. It does not seem
like a weak move if you
eat them. But when they live
inside— impossible
the grin is bigger than
the mouth like they planned it.

I am coming from the brain.

Cutthroat Trout eats small fish,
fish, eggs, algae, insects,
frogs, and small rodents which
got delivered, I guess.
They’re et by bald eagles,
lake trout, otters, osprey—

I will go towards commotion

and humans. The Wolf eats
hoofed animals mainly,
in fact, 90%.
Nobody eats them for
real. Agents of the grass
rely on their contents.

-I arrive and I want to

Mute Swans eat snails, grasses
aquatic plants, waste grain,
insects and small water
animals. Their young are
preyed upon by raccoons,
mink, foxes, the wolves.

and something beyond the feed corn

planted there. Comes up and comes

around: grass and seed in the earth

are forces born to birth you

as you are born a force of birth.

Ish Klein is the author of the following books of poetry, Union! (2009), Moving Day(2011) and Consolation and Mirth (2015) and the films on dvd produced by Poor Claudia, Success Window. She is a founding member of the Connecticut River Valley Poets Theater (CRVPT) and author of the plays, In A Word, Faust, Drummer 41 and The Orchids. Find Ish at Ishklein.org     

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