Comprehendest Thou This?

Comprehendest Thou This?

Here, honey, I’ll let you out, I said,
And twisted the knob and pushed the screen, and out

Into the muggy twilight she went, tail
Curved over her brindled back. Why

Do you talk to it as if it understands
You? he said, his face the same sneer

As his entire stretch of decades of life
Had been. I stabbed back with How do you know

She doesn’t? Whatever bad smell he carried in his
Nostrils seemed to worsen as he put

His head to the side and hissed Every rational
Person knows animals don’t comprehend

Human speech. I met him with And where
Did you learn that? And I roadblocked

His speech with Someone told you that, right?
And why is she an ‘it’ while the bearded

Baker in the shop merits a ‘she’
Just because he squeals it into being?

You read it somewhere, or heard it? He crossed
His arms above his belly and outsmirked

Himself, and I showed him my palm and said
That’s a thin rime to strut upon. Sure it can bear your weight? He presented

His back to me, and I knew that I
Was now the box cutter to his cardboard

Carton, a stained cube crammed with things
He’d never even spied in the daylight.