Interspecies Inspection

Truth be told, one didn’t know at first
what ought to have alarmed one –
was the gleaming flow and run
of verdigris that eased from those

limp glowing limbs (thin stream
approaching flood) its shedding blood? –
or did it herald the involuntarily untaxed
release of pheromones as it relaxed? –

did it feel pleasure? – or was it
an engorged attack: a measure of green
poison which would joylessly bring wrack
and ruin through one’s skin to all one’s

vital organs – rout it out and in?
(One thought one ought to have been
naked while inspecting it: one didn’t
want to stain one’s clothes. One

therefore had disrobed.) Correct
inspection by one species of another
surely ought to summon one’s great
sympathy and courage: good intent.

However, once again, one’s rapt
investigation led to naught (who knows
what a desire to connect requires?):
one’s curiosity was spent. Still

one shan’t repent. One wants to open
oneself, as one can, to the unknown.
Perhaps one’s next encounter will
result in one’s not feeling so alone.





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