The Endangered

I saw them once in my life, so long ago that I can only remember what I wanted to say to the creatures, still to this day, even though by now, they are probably just like me, ensnared.

Now that I think of it, maybe they’re running, I hope no traps have caught them. The world would eat them for dinner otherwise.

I know what I would call to attract them, that I could run too, that I could ignore all the politics and bills, that I could let it just be me and the weather, and faith in humanity to keep me afloat. Take me with you, I would scream, take me with you.

I was far too young to scream it back then. No, I was already ensnared, another kill for the world’s dinner. After years in captivity, I was told to be to work, because in that, life would return to me. A career would revive me, though no money could ever return what was chewed out of me.

But now that I recall, every time I hear a laugh, a real one that makes people glad to have a mask, I feel an endangered nearby, their eyes perked. I feel them lurking when someone rushes out of their job to chase love, and when people throw up their arms on fair rides, and eat new things.

As I write, I can feel one nearby, watching closely, but I never catch sight of them, and when I get ready for work I can’t feel them at all.

I have to be smart, and clever if I am to catch one, I have to do what they like, like follow my heart, or dance alone, or sing in the shower. I have to do things like shout at tv screens and find others to walk around a store with, just to buy nothing.

It’s been so long, that I forgot what they’re called. Something is coming to me, a term that I haven’t heard in a while.

Free Spirits.

Take me with you, I’m ready.