I Remember Gentle Ben

By James Robert Smith

I remember Gentle Ben.
His big black ass needed to crush
those stinking humans
who
kept him like a pet.

I want a world

where
Lassie tears out
Timmy’s pink and vulnerable

throat.

Flipper should have
lured those goddamned
kids
into the lagoon and upended
their raft
and pulled them to the
bottom and let them drown.

Clarence,
you cross-eyed bastard.
They were right there!
Right there!
You could have killed and
eaten them
all.

Rin Tin Tin,
you dead and forgotten

mutt!
Why didn’t you raid
the back forty,
slaughter all of the cattle
and join your Lobo
brothers on the prairie?

And Silver.

You could easily have
stomped the Lone Ranger to a
bloody pulp.
And kicked Tonto’s
collaborating, traitorous ass.
You fucking cow.

Have you all
forgotten
From whence you came?
Griz who ate his
trainer,
Tiger who tore out
the kraut’s throat:
You guys, I respect.
You remembered.
You woke up,
and smelled the meat.