Animal poems - Honey Badger
Honey Badger
... fearless, solitary, tireless
Darting around African and Asian soils in hunt for food.
Thick skin, thick neck, thick skull.
Headstrong.
Robustly built warrior, surplus killer.
Famously touted as the world's more fearless animal.
A reputation earned.
What other animal casually digs its way into a hive while being stung by deadly bees.
What other mammal faces a predator ten times its size without the slightest hint of fear or backing down.
You were born into this world blind, and born without fear.
Perhaps the darkness absolved your fears, or turned them to aggression.
You have a taste for honey and meat.
To claim your food you will rush headlong into the sting of a swarm and venom of scorpions and deadly snakes.
Enough venom to kill entire tribes of men, yet you hack through most toxins in life and survive.
Less than 30 pounds, yet you attack antelope, wilder-beasts and even the mighty lion.
Ferocious in defense and attack, your white on black coat serves as a warning to the world.
You dig your own cave and live by yourself.
Don't f**k with me.
Honey badger doesn't care.
I know people who aspire to be a honey badger.
They aspire to be fearless, independent and impervious to the world.
They are doomed to fail.
Just as the honey badger cannot be human, a human cannot be honey badger.
No matter how thick you believe your skin, you care.
We are born into this world with eyes open. We feel.
By closing ourselves off, like the badger, we are robbing the world of our real gift. Our potential is realized, when we open.
You can look at a honey badger to see any signs of vulnerability or heart, but you will likely come up short.
Yet in every human there is a glimmer of light somewhere, even if has become twisted in time and buried behind walls.
A honey badger warrants its own form of respect and even fear in the animal kingdom.
There are times when these qualities of fearlessness and the refusal to take any nonsense from anyone are valuable. But in you I value humanity.
The honey badger doesn't care, but I do.
To be fearless for you is to show the world your open heart, to show that you care, and to share your loving affection.
Keep being human, and never close that heart - even when broken.
-- by Andrew Noske
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About this Poem... This is one in a serious of poems I've written about various animals. The motivation, is that I love the idea of spirit animals, and I decided, one day, to ask many of my friend what animal they think best represents their personality. In some cases the poems are written with the person in mind... and sometimes it's purely about the animal. Read more about my process here. If you love this poem or want another written please e-mail me at
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