On Manitoulin Island

we feed the animals great grey-white screaming gulls one sitting on a rock for hours waiting he gets fed first

quick chirping chipmunks with sharp stripes who come up to our chairs rabbits - somewhere - shy and snuffling green-necked geese over the bay knowing it could make them too trustful of hunters

for ourselves our pets we say liking them to turn to us to feel acknowledged needed share our origin share rock fir shallows sand one air with them

both - they and we - briefly visiting we imagining we're earth-fed bodies just like them uprooted by our thoughts on this polluted planet whose frail life we suck poison distort

do they know that? forgive? - to undo centuries of guns