When I was younger, my mother turned into
oncoming traffic & I was too scared

to interrupt her—to warn her of the cars
coming towards us. I thought silent was the right

thing to be. Since then I’ve never been confident
in my body & its abilities. I see full trash bags

in fields or on busy streets. I want to tear into them
& look inside, hoping I will find the body

someone went looking for, so it is no longer left
unclaimed—decomposing alone, becoming

a host & a habitat for everything avoidable.  
If I can’t find my own, I want to search

the streets—spread throughout bodies
freely, a displacement of tons. I want to run

wildly across streets with animals before they hit
the cars, before they’re moved onto the solid white line

waiting for their pickup time. I want to save
show horses from balloons being released & tangled

in their manes, so I can’t stay away
from fields or stop laying in streets.

When I was younger, I took animals
abandoned in backyards—the ones that wouldn’t

be searched for.

– Annie Cigic