The maned wolf is a tame creature
fleeing whenever threatened
he is solitary
averse to sunlight, timid
he hates and avoids cities
to flee from the
increasingly inevitable
feral dog attacks
he crosses highways
and is almost always run over by cars
an omnivore with weak jaws,
he feeds on, eggs, fruit, and mice
sometimes, when he’s lost,
he scavenges for food in street garbage cans
choking on pieces of plastic
bottles or styrofoam he’s chewed on
he cuts himself or dies when biting
into fluorescent light bulbs
or swallowing electric wires
he dies from licking insecticides
or leftover paint
or swallowing expired drugs
or disposable
needles and syringes
docile, guileless,
he is easily captured and killed
by fur traffickers
when he then howls
Bonvicino, Régis. “Endangered.” Trans. Odile Cisneros. Beyond the Wall. Los Angeles: Green Integer, 2017. pp. 135-37.
