At the state park visitor center I 
stopped at the installation with 
a painting of a mountain lion, 
coyote, hawk, deer, rabbit, 
and mouse, and I read, “We 
work to maintain the ecological 
balance between the predator 
population and the prey population.” 
It wasn’t the arrogance of
the professional caretakers of Paradise 
that bothered me, it 
was their categories. 

That must be how they
think of us, as prey population, but 
that’s sure not how 
we think of ourselves.

We too honor our dead heroes, but 
don’t call our family cowards.
You don’t know who we are. 

But we know who you are. 

You are the powerful,
the alphas, 
you who decide who gets to live
or die, and what it says on signs.

We rabbits and deer and 
mice are not prey population. 
We are the quick and the wily
with the good sense to chose flight over 
fight when we see you coming,
We know who you are, 
you are the predator population, 
and we are
keeping our eye on you.