ANIMALS THAT TALK

ANIMALS THAT TALK
Warily, I walk the streets of this dilapidated town
They shuffle by on their hind legs, gazing blankly toward the ground
Adorned in hideous, shapeless rags and waddling around

I am surrounded by animals that talk
They do not think like me, they are not calm like me
Instinct: their decision-making process
Convenience: their moral compass
They bare their fangs and extend their claws

The way they stare at you with dull, expressionless eyes
Are they merely reacting to movement?
Watch their feet for clues of intent
Does the friendly one want to mate with you?
Does the aggressive one want to injure you?
Does the nervous one want to steal from you?
There is no way to predict their primitive whims

I am surrounded by animals that talk
They do not think like me, they are not calm like me
Reacting with violence to the outcome of games
Disdaining independence, they all want to be the same
Imitating things they see
Some of them even look like me

I am surrounded by animals that talk
They do not think like me, they are not calm like me
Merrily forsaking their brains, ingesting poison to dull their pain
Their highest goal: to mate with one another
Sometimes to attain this, they will kill each other

And I pace the floor of the cage in my mind


LESS IS MORE IN LOVE AND WAR
Love - for aficionados of deception
Love - for those with expensive tastes
Love - insincere familial obligation
Love - the greatest lie ever told

(All aboard, all aboard, get your tickets ready for the H.M.S. Mutual Delusion)

Flagrant refusal to concede perpetual solitude
Deceive thyself with delusions of romantic folly
Honest souls cannot escape the inevitable truth:
We are all alone
Now and forevermore
Every single one of us
Inescapably alone

Less is more in love and war

Why endure a lifetime of despair
When you could end it all today
Not by drinking delicious hemlock
But by refusing to believe in...


AND LEARNING NOTHING
Peasant women weeping at their Virgin Mary apps
Animal-abuse supporters patting themselves on free-range backs
Stone-age tribal warlords tweet their latest attacks
Everybody's looking at their phones and learning nothing

Forty-something narcissists seek the perfect mate
Entrepreneurial homophobes cashing-in on Christian hate
Climate deniers ignoring mountains of evidence 'till it's too late
Everybody's looking at their phones and learning nothing

Pampered first-world serfs cannot distinguish what is real
Unfit mothers medicating kids who think or feel
Peer-reviewed studies are a trick and pseudoscience is real
Everybody's looking at their phones and learning nothing

Map-illiterate GPS slaves drive into the sea
Choose your favorite corporate puppet and pretend you're free
Ignore unlimited knowledge in favor of pornography
Everybody's looking at their phones and learning nothing

Give a man a fish, and he will eat for a day
But teach a man to fish, and he will destroy the entire ocean

Human race, human race
Your thinking is too limited
Human race, human race
Your ethics are too primitive
Human race, human race
I tried to love you
Human race, human race
I am not of you

Humanity - educate yourselves... but you won't
End poverty - pool resources... but you won't
Abolish war - refuse to fight... but you won't
Carbon death - stop harming animals... but you won't

"Ooga booga, dey a magic man in da sky"
Barbarians with cell phones!

Technology alone cannot civilize a society