by Ethel Mortenson Davis
The local people say,
don’t walk out in the wilderness
unless you carry a gun,
because of large predators
and wild dogs—
dogs turned loose
in the desert, abused and neglected.
Now in the hundreds of thousands,
they pack up
to find food and survive.
They kill elk and cattle,
and people—
a man in his fifties.
Children abused
And neglected
join gangs in order to survive.
In order to live—
they kill people.
