What is my name? What is my family’s name?
What’s my class? Equus Caballus from the Scottish Highlands;
My shaggy, dense, double coat thwarts harsh weather,
Grey skin, sturdy legs, deep girth, thick mane and tail.
But what’s the name you want to call me as your label?
Buster Brown, Philip the Third, Peter or any other construct …
Then brand me with what relative degree of purity,
What exclusive privilege do you bestow on me
To parade in carnivals, fairs and petting zoos with jingle bells?
What is the value of ancestry and immutable traits or bias
You set as presumed superiority or inferiority of classes.
Hello, I am what I am … my class, my sex, my age, my family …
Do not name call me by any rank of breed or caste hierarchy,
Just like me as I am in the sun’s warmth and welcome to my home.
