This Morning, I Wanted Four Legs

This Morning, I Wanted Four Legs
by Jane Hirshfield

Nothing on two legs weighs much,
or can.
An elephant, a donkey, even a cookstove—
those legs, a person could stand on.
Two legs pitch you forward.
Two legs tire.
They look for another two legs to be with,
to move one set forward to music
while letting the other move back.

They want to carve into a tree trunk:
2gether 4ever.
Nothing on two legs can bark,
can whinny or chuff.
Tonight, though, everything’s different.
Tonight I want wheels.

"This Morning, I Wanted Four Legs" by Jane Hirshfield, from The Beauty. © Knopf, 2015.