Week Two: Writing. Animal Life.

What astonishes me
is that moment
when I become an animal.
Like turning a knife blade over
that second when the fold
of the blade
catches on the light
and flashes
before exposing the other side.
My anger, primal
greedy,
blood-filled and raw.
My mind toys with that flash of light
how it happens so quickly.
I become not myself.
I become someone else.
I become that which my anger wants to destroy.
It would seem that every sense is engaged
waiting to pounce
in battle.
But in fact I am
serrated
dull
unable to make a clean cut, after all.
Unable to wield my weapons like a true warrior.
It seems to me that when
I become like an animal in that way
I am doing my own blood-letting
doing my enemy's work for them
because in this battle there is no passion
only the loss of self-control.