Humans like to think we are somehow special, they stand above the other animals on this small planet as it spins in the foreverness of space.
There is majesty in all life that we have tarnished with our greed, envy, spite and pride. We kid ourselves if we think we can escape the damage we have done to our terrarium. The disregard we have shown to the life of this planet, our destruction of it’s delicate self sustaining processes …it’s all going to come home to roost. As the new generation of activists tell us – there is no Planet B.
“If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”. That thought experiment has always made me laugh – it assumes that humans are required for reality to exist. Of course the animals that live in and around that tree will have heard the tree fall. But humans have this arrogant perception that everything exists because of us, that we are somehow central to the narrative of this planet, when actually the planet is central to us. I was thinking along these lines when the poem “I am an animal”.
I am an animal
I hear the call of the wild
Despite your efforts, I won’t be civilised
Animal integrity cannot be compromised.
I am an animal
I live in the actual
My world is free from the “gothic, religious and tame”*
I see through your veneer, a thin contrivance of fame.
I am an animal
It seems only logical
To walk with my head high
The end of your rule is nigh.
We the animals will rise up
A roaring chorus “enough”
Of your injustice and pride
Your desire for a free ride
That’s not how nature works
We have survived your worst.
Just “stupid dumb animals”?
We’ll confine you to dusty annals
To become mouldy and rotten
Easily forgotten.
I am an animal
I am free, powerful
I know where I come from
I know my true form
That you also see your destiny
Scares you more than anything.
*Lyric taken from Walker, D. (1982). Wild Colonial Boy[Song]. On the Cold Chisel Album Circus Animals. Record Label: Elektra. For more information about the band you can go to Cold Chisel – The Official website for Cold Chisel
Angele Toomey Poetry 