And in Conant Gardens, later that same day,
my uncle had minks in his backyard, 500 minks.
I don't know if you've ever seen how minks are raised,
but they're raised in domesticity, domestic
situations, but they're never become tame.
They're wild animals.
And if you think a mink coat is beautiful,
you should see a living mink, a beautiful animal.
And so I was very interested in the minks
and tried to make friends with them--
lots.
I'd go out where the cages were and talk to them,
but they didn't make friends.
They don't want to be friends.
"The Minks."
"In the backyard of our house on Norwood,
there were 500 steel cages lined up,
each with a wooden box roofed with tar paper.
Inside, two stories with straw for a bed.
Sometimes the minks would pace back and forth, quite
wildly looking for a way out.
Or else, they'd hide in their wooden houses,
even when we put the offering of raw horse meat on their trays,
as if they knew they were beautiful
and wanted to deprive us.
In spring, the placid kits drank with glazed eyes.
Sometimes the mothers would go mad and snap their necks.
My uncle would lift the roof like a god who
might lift our roof, look down on us,
and take us out to safety.
Sometimes one would escape.
He would go down on his hands and knees,
aiming a flashlight like a bullet of light,
hoping to catch the orange gold of its eye.
He wore huge boots, gloves so thick their little teeth
couldn't bite through.
They're wild, he'd say, never trust them.
Each afternoon when I put the scoop of raw meat,
rich with eggs and vitamins, on their trays,
I'd call to each a greeting.
Their small thin faces would follow as if slightly curious.
In fall, they went out in a van, returning sorted,
matched, their skins hanging down
on huge metal hangers pinned by their mouths."
My uncle would take them out when company came
and drape them over his arm.
The sweetest cargo.
He'd blow down the pelts softly, and the hairs
would part for his breath and show the shining under-life
which, like the shining of the soul,
gives us each character and beauty."