Who could fail to admire
those few who eat us
without compunction?
Great whites rip with serrated teeth
and call others in
with your hemosignal.
Tigers when you are sweating
and swatting in the banded shadows
will crush your throat.
Crocodiles will bite then twist
their whole body round
to strip you clean.
Most admirable of all are polar bears
nearly invisible in the snowfields
hair free of colour
with a light-scattering hollow core.
Your perimeters indistinct
with view repetitive
in the endless white.
The bear comes to you all intimate
covering her black nose
the only unwhite.
Paw over it
running on three legs
until she has you.
James Thornton is a poet, writer, ecolawyer and Zen priest. His first collection of poems, The Feynman Challenge, appeared in 2017. Born in New York, he is a citizen of Ireland as well as the USA. James is also the founding CEO of the global environmental group ClientEarth, which uses law to protect planet and people. His most recent work of nonfiction, Client Earth, co-authored with husband Martin Goodman, won the Judge’s Category, Business Book of the Year Award 2018. He lives with Martin in London and the French Pyrenees. @JamesThorntonCE