The Order of Things

They are harm

             less,	gentle	
	
                           giant		docile		

                           long eye		             lashes	
                                                                                      gentle	
                                                                                                    gentle…
	
And yet: 

They consume.

We pretend ours less

				GROTESQUE

Even for them, we	paint pretty
pictures—		long necks, 		spotted

patterns		         caged			contained
categorized		taxonomized 		in neat little
boxes 			safe, known		and then:

                                                  How strange 

to learn their consumption 
of bones (a necessary 				   enrichment, mind—

                                                   instinct, a body knowing
                                                   its needs in this world;

barbarism in name

                              of calcium & phosphorous)

Still—the world cannot
be unseemly antlers dangling
from their hard
palates, 				                        cannibalistic & divine

Author of the article

Audrey T. Carroll is the author of the What Blooms in the Dark (ELJ Editions, 2024) and Parts of Speech: A Disabled Dictionary (Alien Buddha Press, 2023). Her work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. Her writing has appeared in Lost Balloon, CRAFT, JMWW, Bending Genres, and others. She is a bi/queer and disabled/chronically ill writer. She serves as a Diversity & Inclusion Editor for the Journal of Creative Writing Studies, and as a Fiction Editor for Chaotic Merge Magazine. She can be found at http://AudreyTCarrollWrites.weebly.com and @AudreyTCarroll on Twitter/Instagram.