The Beautiful Animal

Painting by Jordan Henderson

By the time I recalled that it is also
terrifying, we had gone too far into
the charmed woods to return.  It was then

this beautiful animal appeared in our path:
ribs jutting, moon-fed eyes moving
from me to you and back.  If we show

none of the fear, it may tire of waiting
for the triggering flight, it may ask only
to lie between us and sleep, fur warm

on our skin, breath sweet on our necks
as it dreams of slaughter, as we dream
alternately of feeding and taming it

and of being the first to run.  The woods
close tight around us, lying nested here
like spoons in a drawer of knives, to see

​who wakes first, and from which dream.

​    - Geoffrey Brock

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​Will you consider joining me
around each full moon in 2021
in the sacred cave at Bodega Bay,
to dream and sing and listen and celebrate
with the seals and the fish and the ravens
and the waves and the rocks and the sand fleas?

Visit the Ecos de la Marea page for details.