The Animal Children

I.

I wonder what the food tastes like
when they are half starved
clawing at their soiled flesh like clothes
hanging off of them in tatters
when their keeper throws in a plate
through the hole in the door
do they hide away until they see the close is clear?
do they get up close, cautiously and then
sniff out the food?
do they scarf it down quickly once they know
everything is alright?
I wonder what they do when he lets them out,
lets them roam like the wild beasts they are?
free to hang from swamp vines
living off the dirt,
making fire by twiddling dry sticks between their hands.
I wonder if they go to sleep under the stars
dreaming about the day they can hunt
and be free again.

II.

They were found yesterday
digging through garbage cans and dumpsters
digging for their next meal.
Captured with a net and chains
across their wrists and took them away
I miss them.
Miss the way they’d growl at me
when I got too close,
the foul way they smelled,
how sharp and rotten
their teeth were when they spoke to one another
in their secret code because it wasn’t English they spoke
they were never taught that
but to fend for themselves
and to always stay free
but I don’t think they know what that means anymore.
It was the freedom they lost that day,
trapped in a system they could never understand;
it was too late for them then;
it’s too late for them now.