The Beast

Words are one thing. Beast is else.
Heart is else. Ah, back to words,

Though, now, aren’t we? Which is best—
Heart, core, soul, flesh? What’s the word

That best fits the bit of beast
That’s not words? You want to say

That you can tell when the heart
Means well, when what the mouth says

May be wrong or cruel, or worse
In what it means or could mean

Than what the beast, what the flesh
Wants to say, or longs to say,

Or, while we’re at it, what it
Means to say. What the words mean,

The ones that were said, may be
One thing, not one the beast means.