Regarding Badger Poem by Hans Ostrom

I have seen the badger,
and I approve. Its body
asserts badgerness. The
rhetoric is fierce, furry, low,
leveraged, and necessary.

I prefer not to point to tall
buildings and small computers
and say 'Look at what we've done! '
I am, however, in favor
of sewer systems, electric light,
and medicine. But have we

done right by the badger?
That's a measure of civilization,
too: a judgment to limit ourselves,
to leave bristling striped
smart badger and wet woods
alone enough and well.

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