-~= I. =~-
Society esteems a Man by height –
'Tis known from olden times, but never I
Would ever have imagined this my plight:
Transformed and standing barely three feet high
(Not counting ears some inches more above,)
I hardly measure past my former thigh!
Diminutive, my stature earns the love
Of neighbor-children, true – but in a crowd,
How thoughtlessly I'm knocked about and shoved!
No more the roller-coaster I'm allowed,
Nor can machinery I operate,
Although of neither was I very proud;
But often am I now arriving late
On bicycle or foot (with shortened stride,)
Or else on public transit must I wait!
And (further injury unto my pride)
I have to clamber on the counter-top
As long ago my mother once decried,
Or hop and scrabble, fumble, swipe, and hop,
Or call for help to reach the upper tier
In pantry-cupboard, library, or shop!
And when I go to concert or premiere,
I'm forced to climb on seat-back just to see,
My age mistaken when I order beer;
Thus left no scrap of former dignity –
A pox upon my tiny destiny!
-~= II. =~-
Society esteems a Man by hair,
And baldness strives to forestall or disguise –
They must admit, I've surely got them there!
For all across my skin a carpet lies –
In furs of russet, black, and white I'm dressed –
Although it's most annoying otherwise:
This insulation I cannot divest,
Nor am I any longer perspirant,
And when the Sun is fully incandesced
There's naught for solace I can do but pant,
And speak with huffing breath and lolling tongue –
A social struggle most humiliant!
And when I've showered (quietly, unsung,)
I stand there sullen, sodden, dripping-wet,
And long I blow-dry once my fur I've wrung;
But even when I'm dry as I can get,
A strange and musty odor fills the air,
As ever known to them that bathe a pet!
A hassle is this coat of mine, so fair,
That thickens for the winter, and in Spring
Dislodges all its excess everywhere,
Which dander to my clothes and carpet cling –
In salad, soup, and sandwich, in my ale –
In short, to every blasted little thing!
(And aptly "feather-duster" names my tail,
When should it under couch or cupboard trail!)
-~= III. =~-
Society by manners weighs a Man,
Who mores and tradition honors well,
And has since civil order first began –
But truly would it ring my social knell
If I to novel instinct should submit,
And spatial bound'ries violate to smell
Where normally politeness won't permit,
Or leave my scent on landmarks for a trace,
My own I.D. and status to transmit!
Nor would it show decorum, tact, or grace
To greet my friends and fam'ly like a freak
By gaily licking them about the face;
To hail them with a loud, uncanny shriek,
Or lean upon them, cackling like a loon –
No, these would not my dignity bespeak!
And when I would from outside world cocoon
And shelter, to my own devices left,
I've (driven by my altered nature) hewn
Into the very earth itself a cleft –
Not what the upper crust denote by "den,"
A burrow dark, of ornament bereft!
And ill-behaved they'd call me, if and when
I hunger, I'd into the hen-house steal,
And carry off what lately is my yen –
Nor would be seen as kosher, do I feel,
For making whole and uncooked eggs a meal!
-~= IV. =~-
Society esteems Men as a group –
But recently it's hard to dub me "man;"
Indeed, I've been ejected from the troop
(Though nothing have I done to earn the ban!)
Invited thus to other sex adopt,
A member in another, distaff clan!
What once extended now lies closer-cropped
And plains have given way to mountains twin,
My reproductive apparatus swapped
And opened up a factory within,
Which never will its monthly clangour spare
Unless it's occupied, to my chagrin!
Yet bodily remodel can't compare –
To casual dismissal of my sex,
To them that at my Tail & Assets stare,
To "compliment'ry" epithets that vex,
To minding of my skirt with ev'ry breeze –
'Tis life within the feminine annex!
So, though my rabbit gender-sherpa tease,
Might I but common courtesy expect?
I'll brook no "little lady," if you please!
(Though, when she has in sharp ensemble decked
And neatly has my hair and fur arranged,
How fine a creature does the glass reflect –
And though I find the new sensations strange,
'Twould lying be to fully diss the change…)
-~= V. =~-
Society esteems what I am not,
Or never was, or can't be very well –
A sobering and irksome kinda thought,
If I'm among society to dwell;
Or shall I make my shelter in the wood,
And play the feral animal? Like hell!
Yet somewhere is my nature understood,
And never do my instincts raise a brow
With denizens of that strange neighborhood;
Where local customs graciously allow
For crow or chatter, trumpet, bray, or bark;
Where lion lives 'longside the lamb, somehow –
And (roughly) free of chauvinistic snark;
'Mid such a plethora of size and shape,
My reconfigured sex they hardly mark –
But do they by variety escape
Some tribalist and patronizing urge
Specific to the elevated ape,
Or does this scrappy life beyond the verge
Of privilege for kinship make a case,
And all the lesser differences merge?
O, irony! I'm welcome in this place,
Which draws me with its strange, inhuman call,
And wraps in its transformative embrace;
Should I lament the old man, standing tall,
Or am I truly beast-kin after all?