To a Capybara:
I’ve never seen your face change how it’s set.
There must be some emotion underneath,
but the effect is admirable yet—
if you’ve a care, it’s hid behind your teeth.
There would be something not too well in it,
if I knew not the rest of your repose.
But it is not a mask. It does not fit
around your true emotions like loose clothes.
That simple, bored expression is a tell
for those who see you often. It says: see:
I am exactly what I am. Look well,
I will always be what I seem to be.
I wish I was so obvious. But far
from truth are we who look not as we are.
~~~
To a Duck:
You know, I’ve never seen what some say when
they talk about you. You are oft implied
to be always as angry as a hen
who has been, from her little ones, denied.
I’ve never seen that. Yet you live with it—
a bad repute which you do not deserve.
And when I do see you, you often sit
quite still, like nothing could upset your nerve.
I couldn’t do that. Everyone must know
the truth of me, or at least something good.
I know of few who can. But if I go
to scripture, there is one who surely would.
He does. And maybe you, just sitting there
as if walking on water, are as fair.