The Last Metaphor

If animals were the first metaphor  

What will be last? 

How is our trajectory so different

from our past? 

Will there be any wisdom when we’ve rid the earth  

of owls?

Will there be any courage left when lions cease to prowl?

When elephants are long forgotten, lost as hillside sheep

How will we speak of homecoming or memory or belief? 

A dove for peace a snake for sin – for

healing, curse and cure

Not tidy like new metaphors,

Sanitized, secure 

but try this 

Learn something from technology

you can’t find in the eyes

of treefrogs, sloths, or wildebeests,

tigers, even flies 

tools will just do what they’re told

give wisdom they’ve been fed 

all the world’s machines can only lead where

they’ve been led  

Maybe the last metaphor will be

just like the first

maybe we will learn from all creation

we have cursed

As animals were metaphors for life,

all blood and breath

Our last echoing metaphor?

The animal. For death.