our world, their world

They are our companions, the animals,

The ones with whom we share this space,

This spinning treasury of air and water,

We used to think our kingdoms were quite separate,

Split by language and the reasoning mind;

No more; they have their reason, the animals,

They have their language—the call of whales

Across a thousand miles of water,

The territorial challenges of birds,

The bellow of pain, of loss—a language

We have never really listened to,

But which we hear today; listen: the language

Of our brothers and our sisters.

We have only one home,

And that is a common one;

We have only one life,

And that is a precious one;

There is only one way,

And that is the healing one.