Community Matrix

Give people this—we’re good

At spotting evil
Everywhere in everyone

Who might be dangerous
Enough to spot evil in us—

We’re good

At sniffing out those evil
Other people sniffing us—

It’s the keen metaphorical sense
Of scent we purchased

At the considerable expense
Of the loss of any actual sense

Of actual scents—
You know you know

This—you can feel the blood
Swell in your neck at the thought

Of the evil you know—and you’re not

Wrong—we have evolved
This new sense as body armor

Back of the dawn of predation
Evolved along with jaws—

The gift of cruelty
Like the gift of swifter swimming

With stiffer teeth necessitated
Defensive adaptations

Evasive strategies
And counterattack capacities

An altogether more
Sophisticated show now

Although—do we even know
Anymore what evil is—

Any more
Than whatever it is our sense

Of evil continually
Hunts and hungers for?