Bulky in top, and shorts and logos,
tanned round skull shaven to the brain,
it grins at the woman who's near it.
This is an automat gesture -
as a dog looks round, mapping itself
on to the moving pack, as a bird
flies because another bird flies.
Lacking a sense of higher power,
it may be violent, may think
itself feral. It's dressed to fill
several familiar old images.
One sees the space as a pet, or a child
used to survival without risk,
glimpsing the mundane face of death.
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