It

 

            Whoever it was on the committee

 

            Takes the cake

            For coming up with such a curious scheme

            Wherein every living thing

            Bar none

            Can only thrive by

 

            Trapping, swallowing or absorbing,

            Squashing, smothering, devouring,

            Penetrating, poisoning, debilitating,

            Macerating, decimating and, in short,

            Exterminating something else

 

            Big or small

            Few or many

            Vegetable, viral or bacterial

            Cellular, subcellular or

            Human, dare I say

 

            Maybe it would tell me

            Some quiet Saturday evening

            Over a glass of wine

            At a seaside café

            As a warm breeze blows

 

            Why, when two of us,

            Joined in benevolence

            Why, if one looks carefully enough,

            We can’t stop duelling

            Cheek to cheek

            Despite the trails of carnage in our wakes

 

            Or is that just another facet of

            Intelligent design?