There are only dogs and snakes in my world, and I have to slither

To get past, and bark to get ahead, just so that

I won’t go down in the stampede. We are all animals,

And our ancestors were apes. Machine animals with razor-teeth

And fur across their bellies. My cousins are cavemen,

But I do not see them, and they do not mind me, and they carry

Their burdens on their shoulders, like rocks.

A thousand years later, they’ll be hunchbacks, but with

Lighter loads. Housemen. Homemen. I will follow,

With my jewel encrusted leash and my silver tongue,

A blindschlange, a dachshund. Snakedogsnake. And still I

Am nobody.

Have nobody.

This is no longer my world.