Poem’s Initial Question

Who have humans harmed the most?
The extinguished or the domesticated?
Or humans themselves, some of both?

Whatever I most desperately, secretly—
Secret even to me—want to do to you,
I will accuse you of already doing to me

Or to someone akin to me but innocent.
Now, I can, I must, I have no other choice—
I’m morally obliged to do what I want

To you. And you, for your part, may
Want to do the same, if not to me,
Then to some other, perhaps threat to you.

Here is the human universe, unique,
It would seem, among many otherwise
Similar forms of living organisms.

Call it hate, if you like, call it moral
Aggression. Maybe it isn’t completely
Unique, but it certainly is human.

Sometimes, we do think of Neanderthals
And of even ghostlier human prehumans.
Perhaps they’re the answer to this