by Donald Dewey
Giraffe munching on the highest leaf,
you are a freak on your skyscraper diet.
Your neck is yanked from your heart,
your bandy legs are acts of faith.
Look how tense your spots, wiring
your starred and striped lines.
You are a network of coiled scars,
your body a ricochet from the soil.
You are up there now, super survivor,
too high to feel the attacks at your feet.
But chewing away as your mission,
your gums hardened to taste,
the thinner air will not let you lie again.
You would like to stand invisible,
but you are too awkward for monuments
to privacy.
You can only gnash and gnash some more
as the universe comes closer to your eye.
Giraffe