Warthogs can have the power to attract
(even if only another warthog) –
well, isn’t that a most important fact?
That there are standards of warthog beauty
gives us comfort: pederasts, murderers
and the very ordinary alike
are all sustained by the hope of loving
and being loved in return. The shrike
covering its bush with its tiny load
of impaled things, the good obedient boy
pinning beauty fluttering to a board,
surprised by ugliness, shall both find joy
and the eremite and the slaughter-man will:
there is redemption, and others who kill.