Spencer's* Lament

Ants in columns know

cooperation is the key

to caring for their young,

defending their homes,

moving mountains, together.

Bees dancing know

communication is the crux

of swarm intelligence.

Together they achieve

the purpose of the hive.

Schooling fish know

the comfort and safety of their numbers;

diving and darting in great flashing pillars,

swirling and clouding the hungry eyes

of passing predators.

Starlings in flight know

when to give themselves over

to the grace and inspiration of the flock

in grand poetic murmurations

against the sinking sun.

Sea otters know

not to drift away from each other.

In the vast night waters they hold paws,

floating and sleeping, peacefully

rafted together.

Beasts in great clouds of dust sense

the wisdom of their ancestry,

trusting their origins, instincts and experience

to drink, graze, bathe, and rest together,

thriving in the full glare of long hard days.

Hunters watching, know

how and where to strike together,

conserving their individual energy,

then adding themselves to the strength

of the pride, of the pack,

when sacrifice is necessary.

Humans learn, work, dream and die

“at the top of the food chain”;

both predator and prey to our own kind.

We evolving and devolving “stewards of the earth”

may know the least

about the survival of our species.

Sybilla 3/1/2013

"The Last Supper" by Anne Coe

*Herbert Spencer, a Victorian philosopher, coined the term: "Survival of the Fittest" and worked with his cousin, Charles Darwin on the concept of Social Darwinism.