Animal Empathy ~ The Empathy Animal

   

Animal Empathy

an animal antiphon
assimilated aborigines

we are Antaeus
earth our arboretum

it is not a matter of thinking
it begins here: we band

together, a braid
of betrothal and betrayal

the human biography
curators of creation

we cannot continue
to consume without consequence

sinking deep into demise
we must listen, we must hear

the descant of the Dervish
or die with the devils

of our own nature
this, our dilemma

discipline, or distress
feel the drumming

the ebb, the elapse
of human dynasty

we are the element
of our own extinction

or we embark on a voyage
of enlightened empathy

  

  

The Empathy Animal

we claim that empathy
emanates from the human brain

that elegant and enigmatic organ
that distinguishes us from our cousins

the ground of our disposition
or perhaps of our self-deception

we consecrate our deviation
in this dialectic with our kin

from the time we left our caves
we have blamed on them our carnal selves

we say the beast in us is base
a barb in the flesh of all that's best

but it's our apish arrogance
that divides us from the rest

  

    read write prompt #84: fun with the dictionary

    Totally Optional Prompt: Spontaneity/Planning

Again, the two prompts work together. Usually I think and/or write and then work with what comes. This time I followed the guidance in Matthea Harvey's essay “Don Dada On The Down Low Getting Godly In His Game: Between and Beyond Play and Prayer in the Abecedarius”, working through the dictionary from animal to empathy and back again.

This exercise seems to have elicited my expository self. Not a strong suit for me, I think.

[Thursday morning: a bit of slight editing]