Demonocene

Turkeys and deer are somewhat
Less striking than coyotes,
Less impressive than the rats—

After all, you had to pause
Hunting them down for them
To spring back—but coyotes

And rats rise up despite hunts,
Bounties, poison-baited traps,
Brutal culls, gruesome displays.

Cockroaches and ants as well
Earn more credit than pigeons
Or the aerobatic swifts

Who nest in underpasses
And hunt above snarling trucks—
Those synanthropes who won’t go

No matter how you kill them
Almost seem to be possessed
By soul, like you, you demons.