Fated to be half this, half that, subspecies

quagga quagga, part horse, part zebra,

striped from head to gird, brown from gird to rump,

last photographed in 1870 in an Amsterdam zoo,

was chased into extinction for meat and hide,

and now appears as a pencil drawing in a fold

of the American Heritage Dictionary

Should you be one of similar subspecies,

part man, part horse behind,

adorned in pin stripes and jaunty tie,

think how you might look running ––

one tasseled loafer on, one off ––

from the barrel of a predator

whose only wish is to blow you

into extinction