There was shame when my hands shook.

When the nurses asked if I suffered

from seizures, I said, No. They said it was shock.
I never did just sit there when babies or blood left me.

I would become the shuddering sides of the deer,

the tremor that comes with the canine whine. 
I read somewhere that it is the way animals

release the day’s damage so I have decided

not to deny the mammal inside me. After all,
I am only half tame. Let me fall back

against the grass, see only sky above me.