You put unbaited worms back alive after fishing,
reverse robin, pinky like bird‘s beak
into dirt, to give them a head start.
And you and the fish get along fine:
respecting someone‘s no reason for not eating them.
And to speak of eating, when porridge pot‘s low,
it‘s kids first, elders first, whatever they can eat,
even if your stomach‘s wide-open like blue eyes, blue sky, and:
you open all the cages in Hell, just on a whim,
because folks inside are stirring,
causing a racket.
You give them room to gad about
and then you read them some stories to think on.
Any book‘ll do, good or no.
What do we call this? Common decency?
Tenderness?
Just is, that‘s all,
the unremarked.
It matters, you matter.
You matter to me.
Bat Collazo (ze/zir/zirs) is a queer, Latinx, Pagan poet and artist. Ze is the editor of Blood Unbound, and zir writing has been published in places such as The Wild Hunt, Idunna, and Neologism Poetry Journal. For more information, please visit batcollazo.com.