Golden Asses

The athletes and fighters you remember.
Everyday workers you mostly forget.

Seven thousand years ago in Kenya,
The first donkeys were domesticated.

Think of the world, then. Think of that lost world.
Human muscle, human transportation—

Horses having not yet swept in from steppes,
Horses not yet pulling war chariots,

None of the gods you hymn yet invented,
None of your writing systems for hymns.

Donkeys, domesticated, went to work
As your original beasts of burden,

And how much of what you’ve done—from wells,
From mills, from breweries, from mines—was done

By dint of donkeys? Even your stories,
High literature and fairytales,

Hollywood westerns, fables, comedies,
And countless barnyard stories for children

Needed donkeys for their comic relief.
But those handsome horses you lionized.