People are dressed in animal skins,
Alaskan brown bears, ocelots, chihuahuas
and other animals not native to this terrain.
They want us to believe they are those animals
so that we will be afraid and feed them.
They are pitied, they are talked about,
and sometimes their costumes are complimented
by those who still care.
But they are exiled.
They are rounded up, disguised
under layers of sod, trucked in the night
to the city limits. I have often wondered
about the limits of this city–
whether there are any.