Empowering Pathos

When animals are sad

I know creatures who'd rather die before they wait,

I don't see them around anymore.

I know of a bird whose soul got so sad,

He lost his heart to open wings and soar.

And you don't know how painful pain is,

Till you meet a cat insomniac who won't take naps anymore.

I know penguins who don't dance.

I knew a lioness who crossed paws and refused roar.

I know creatures who'd rather die before they wait,

On us to make things our kind of better.

And I don't see them around anymore.

I know a horse so broken hearted

She'll lay down in grass and never graze it.

I know ducklings so dour,

they won't go into their rows.

I know a rooster so outraged,

his tacit tiff with the sun could go on forever.

I know a whale so exhausted,

he lays on the beach all day,

wants the ocean to pass him by.

I know a tree. So dry, she's burnt her leaves up and steams away all the rain.

Before it can touch her.

I know a flower, so sterilized, the bees have stopped asking her to dance.

I know of a wolf so useless that she paces in tight and empty circles.

I know a cricket so small about life that he won't leap to anyone's higher height.

For anyone's brighter, sweeter leaf. When he can't believe in those, he can't taste those, anymore.

When the animals have their bad days,

That's the worst it will ever be.

And no one is sadder than one of us,

when there is no longer a reason to be wild or free.

I know a woman so done with walking no where,

She shuts herself up in the limousine.

I know a man so tired of earning nothing by his work,

He's grown too weak to even dream.

I know a child who has quit her classes, broken her toys and stifled her laughter.

I know a baby who'd rather be hungry than to cry and go unanswered.

I know people who'd rather die before they wait,

For us to make things our kind of better,

And I don't see them around anymore.

When the humans have their bad days,

That's the worst it will ever be.

And no one is sadder than one of us,

When we stop taking our chances to be wild or free.