Love the Animals

Assisi, 2023

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At his Basilica, the ivory horn
St. Francis used to call people to prayer
rather than dogs to hunt small creatures
hangs in a glass box, gift of a Muslim sultan,
a wooden cylinder later strung with chains
& used to beat disciples to attention.
Dual purpose, deemed divine. Raghnild says
maybe St. Francis of the reverently uttered name,
nature’s & animals’ famed patron saint, only beat
rich disciples. I try to believe
but suspect he felt more like those who wanted
Mike Vick lynched for dogfighting & cared nothing
for the hours Mike Brown’s gunned-down body spent
laying in the street. The south transept altar
where della Francesca painted archangel Michael
meeting Seth at Adam’s funeral shows grief &
comfort, stages of life imagined a thousand years
past, but more than angels & nakedness, blue
skies & bowed heads, I’m struck by the peace