Thursday, January 13, 2022

SOCIOBIOLOGICAL

by Tom Bauer


E.O. Wilson, famed entomologist and pioneer in the field of sociobiology, dies at 92.


It’s safe to say. It's like the species does
what others do, but quickly, consciously,
aware of what it does while doing it,
like caterpillars on the dying edge;
the lava comes, the inner circle’s safe;
above it rains, they’re safe below, beneath
the layers of others, those who will go first,
who'll dive off leaves into the drowning ground.
The finest traits in all the kingdom are
amassed and ready in the mass, to move,
adapt, the speed of thought, instant meta
class of entity, biology, human,
bipedal feces-maker, building wide
a grand estate of armor-plated lies.


Tom Bauer grew up playing violin and listening to spoken word recordings. When he was ten, he rashly announced he was going to be a poet. He did a bunch of university and stuff. He's had some poems published. He lives in Montreal and plays board games.