They’ve been left in the rocky desert,

trafficked for their young usefulness,

used to the point of uselessness,

turned into examples, then abandoned.

A sense of mercy would have lain them

with respect, instead of shouldered

and thrown to become leathered bones.

Stolen lives, taken by money and lies,

now valued only by their grievers.

 

(after the 2019 photograph, “Endangered 8,” by Tamara Dean)