The Lion’s Share

When you see me
Doing what I do
To serve my need
For self-sustenance
.
As I feel that stirring
In my hollow inside
Disturbing
The tranquillity of my day in the sun
Calling me and my mates to attention
Spurring
Us
To prepare for action
Tensing our muscles
From relaxation
Narrowing down our awareness
From peaceful sensation
Gathering in the sights, sounds and tastes
Smells, caresses and irritations
Impinging from all around
Into singling out
With forward focus
And pricked ears
Our alert bodies crouching with intent
Until the moment comes
Without pausing to think
To spring, rush, pounce, seize
Ingest fresh warmth
From silenced stillness
Returning to grace
From fright
As I lie down to sleep
Contented
Purring
Until the next stirring
.
Come inside me
In your imagination
Feel how I feel
In tune with my body
In tune with my surroundings
Responding receptively
To what comes and goes
In rhythms
.
Please don’t project
Onto me
Your own estranged psychology
Uprising from your dread of night
And worship of light
Which makes you split your sides
Into black and white
And cut your self apart
From where you are
And where you came from
By means of what you laughably call
‘Natural selection, or
The preservation of favoured races
In the struggle for life’
Which would be funny
If it wasn’t so sad
So bad
For you, for me, for us and the world
That we depend upon
For dear life
.
A psychology rooted not in any natural sense
But in the false exclusion or confusion of matter
From or with the receptive space
Within, without, throughout and all about
That pervades us all
Quite naturally
As dynamic inclusions of itself
In flowing forms of life
Dwelling in the current
From then to then
There to there
Never stopping for an instant
To disappear without trace
…
Into those width-less points, lines and planes
That you impose
From your distanced perspective
The frozen geometry of abstract treason
That puts us in a cage
Caught in suspended animation
And calls it a ‘whole’
That fearful man-trap you use
To rule the world
To rule the waves
Calling your royalty
Victorious, happy and glorious
Reigning supreme over us
To serve as your slaves
…
No, I am no sovereign
I do not define to rule
So, please do not call me King
And do not either call me
Selfish or altruistic
A prey
To the call of my genes
For neither is viable
.
No, I am not in it to win it
At others’ expense
That competitive game of zero sum
That you play with your minds
In gladiatorial arenas
.
I am as you are
Should you care to admit it
Behind your high fences
Needful
…
Can you hear me?
A call of the wild
The silence inside my roar
Which hungers for life
To come my way
As inspiration
A gift from death
To be received, cherished and passed on
In continuous relay
As energy recycles
In natural currency
Not financial security
From the sun on my back
To the soil beneath my clawed paws
Through the grass to the ungulates
Expiring through my jaws
To the microbes and fungi
That wait for their turn
To channel
Through the roots to the shoots
That spread solar arrays
To feed the flowers of receptivity
In radiance
That seed the regeneration
Again and again
In evolutionary uprising
With gathering momentum
In biosphere
From thin film to forest
.
Until and unless
Your Kingdom come
And takes us all away
.
So, please get real
Take your place in the deal
Allow how you feel
In your heart of devotion
To guide your emotion
And reason to be
You call it love
I believe
But then proceed to ignore it
Thinking it weak
Unaccountable
In your desire to be strong like me
Hah!
.
Stop fancying your self
Above all the rest
In that Great Chain of Being
From Top to Bottom
And see yourself we-ing
In diverse community
Not singular unity
Don’t take your leave from us
Just try to recall
As dear Desmond once said
In stark naked honesty