What enmity has the mockingbird for the squirrel
That it should chase and harry and again chase
And yet the cardinal couple mere inches apart
Peck and forage together
But why does a woodpecker also browse the ground
And move to eject a young robin
From the adjoining little plot
Only to fly fast like a woodpecker
To take up its customary vertical perch
On the bole of an ancient pine
That has survived a great gash near the root
Well it’s all the same
Pass those genes on to another generation
No culture
No choice
Subject to eternal fate
Better this than to enjoy the comfort of culture
The privilege of choice however straitened
Who ravage and hoard
Who dream of liberty unbounded
For they can dream
But pay for imagination
In the coin of certainty
The advent of brittleness in limb and spine
Of cancer in the guts or brain
Of foul misadventure
Or the passing of the near and dear
Who cherish proud faith
In the capacity for redress
For procedures to arise to avert crisis
Frenzied to find the technological fix
Upon which they depend in any case
Trust in the schematic
No objects only categories
No subjects therefore
To suffer dream die and delight