Elsewhere

I read that a burro walked into a lake and killed herselfafter losing her newborn, and believe in an elsewhere.

When my dog died, the other dogdid not kill herself. She did not walk from room to room or stop eating.

Theorists have wondered, does animal suicide mean suicide,meaning, do animals speculate about the future,meaning, do they understand death. I think what they mean

is if animals know that death means the end,the whales beaching themselves, the dolphinsceasing to breathe, the deer leaping off a precipice

leaving behind a pack of hunting dogs, my dogwho died, my dog who did not kill herself—

and I want to say when the donkey steppedinto the water and when the whale leanedagainst the aired sand and the deer leaptinto the sky, they chose an elsewhere,which is not to say the end.

My mind is often elsewhere. My dog knewthe other dog was elsewhere, wherever that was.

Elsewhere, the wild moon spins with its moons,bottlenose dolphins sway in sleep. A tree grows fruit

in a dream. When Kathy the dolphin was capturedand put elsewhere, perhaps she thought the way to moveto another elsewhere was to change her breathing, her body.

Do you think I am an optimist and a romantic?I am terrified of death and darkand hell and heaven. But here, now, because of the burro, I believein elsewhere, I swear, that when I am dead I’ll be there,wherever that is, but truly,

I’ll be everyone else’s elsewhere, when everyone is everywhereelse, which is to say is also elsewhere.

I’ll be elsewhere,just as how here, now, I am, in my room, alone,anonymous to every lake I’ve never touched.