Being That

Why does anyone take credit
for anything? Would you
congratulate a blackbird
for its left wing? We do what
we’re designed to do. Aptitudes
and moods, capacities
and varying degrees of energy

and inspiration and whatever else
accounts for the libidinizing
of Jane Austen’s mind into
a “Sense and Sensibility”
or the abstracting of a pink
behind into a boudoir pastel
by Degas may certainly

provide examples of the grander
mental residues and haptic
artifacts of creatures gratifying
what their instincts and peculiarities
beget, begat. But yesterday
I saw a fat white cat. What
a genius he was being that!

.