Mulekick

Unbridled beast in the wild
A stallion in mind,
A jackass in all other eyes.
Buck teeth that never grew straight,
Legs wobblier than those of a foal,
Laughter that never ceases and he is broken
Without so much as a spur dug into hide.
So crippled the mere promise of a carrot
Leads him to an abattoir where butchers
In blood drenched aprons refuse him
On the grounds that his body
Is no bounty for dog food or glue.
Satchels of opium saddle over
The semblance of his backbone
Spilling here and there till one red
Dawn finds him chomping at the bit,
In a frenzy useless as a pack animal
And thrown to the coyotes
In parched fields lined by bones
Picked over time and time again
By starving castes of creatures.
In an abandoned deer blind he waits
Out his habit and studies the sweltering
Days and sanguinary nights
For the subtleties that breed survival
In this broken neck of the woods
Till at long last he is well enough
To stand, to walk, to run
To return to the scenes of so many crimes
Against his nature in a confidence
Greater than hurt, greater than fear,
Greater than hate, greater than revenge.
For the original sin and others
No less nasty no longer inhabit
This beast of burden and the quiet
Is the gruel all this mule needs.