The Ark and its Keeper
It started with stuffed animals,
shifting toys upright on shelves.
I picked lone plushies off the floor
at stores—wishing each one had
somewhere warm and safe to go,
a home to animate with joy.
It began with unbearable terror,
the visceral fear I felt seeing worms
tossed against brick walls at recess—
caterpillars torn apart, cicada broods
smashed alive; precious beings
in pain, helpless and writhing.
What seeded as care for creatures
turned to grave concern for climate.
I grieved kingdoms wiped from earth.
Still I drowned out a mass extinction
of souls unseen and prayers unheard,
built borders on the basis of species.
All my youth I dug tombs. I buried
the struggle of farmed animals deep
in the backrooms of my forming mind.
I silenced what felt strange and wrong
as I breastfed from countless mothers,
cooked their kin’s flesh medium rare.
I spent twenty years loving a cat.
Near the end of her days I asked
what she hoped I would remember.
She said, I’m interested in my life.
I saw that animals are here With us,
fellow travelers through holy floods.
Some watch how I move and make sense
of what matters. Some lean in, see a light
worth reaching toward. Others consider me
with a kind of pity, incredulous and stunned.
I am their cracked mirror, a crypt for questions
they don’t want answered; the ark and its keeper.
Creatures of God set sail where I go, staring you down.
I unleash pigs and cows upon the vile factory tycoons
and they storm forth, gladly. Paired reptiles and insects,
bonded amphibians, rare and mated birds all aboard—
entire histories, sacred and in danger. I make sure
you hear the chicken pray: My life is worth living.
By the time you bring the elephant into the room
I have already found a hundred ways to set her free.
Jimmy O’Hara is a gay writer and editor who crafts science news for a non-profit medical organization. Based on the U.S. east coast, he often focuses his poetry on memory, spirituality, animal rights, social conscience, and a sense of belonging. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Eunoia Review, Pictura Journal, and Literary Veganism. You can reach him at jpohara4@gmail.com.
Amethyst Review 