Contests In The Animal Kingdom - Noaa Rienecker

“Well, fuck you,
and go fuck yourself!”
She storms off the train

To a “Well, go do
Some jumping jacks!
Lose some weight!
That’s all I’m sayin’.”

    He feels it’s more than justified somehow,

    Something she did or said to him was rude,

    Enough to slash her deep, to call her cow

    For any means are just defending “you”.

Two bedraggled men
Outside the station
Beat their chests
and bellow challenges,
scuffling over a sideways look
Or a backhand word,
defending something fragile
with boyish,
almost simian
ferocity.