the souls of animals

the souls of animals
             
they wait beyond
time, unknowing,
uncaught in sin and self.

furred, feathered,
leathered,
shelled and scaled,

simple souls
in animate impulse,
follow suns and moons,
waters and winds
without guile.

their bodies breathe
the ancient litany
of tooth and wing,
hoof and fin,

of life to death.

the souls of animals
wait quietly,
content
to have never left god

(my brother-in-law, a pastor, once remarked, with the surety associated with an obvious fact, that animals had no souls and, therefore, would not go on after this existence)