Field Notes for an Outbreak Species

If you’re not a human,
You’ll need to understand
The species’ visceral

Attachment to concepts
Of fairness and cheating,
The ways abstract markers

And arbitrary games
Trigger emotional,
Physiological

Reactions precursor
To forceful behaviors,
Including violence,

Shouting, weeping, collapse
Into oneself and years
Of rancid bitterness.

Immunity’s not, for
Almost any of them,
An option. Once observed,

Perceived violations
Of fairness by others—
Cheating, hypocrisy,

Quietly accepting
Initial advantage
Without acknowledgment—

Are met by hormonal
Surges impossible
To completely prevent

And rarely much muted.
Identification
Keeps asymmetrical

Inclines intact, so that
What appears to be fair
For oneself, one’s group-mates,

However they’re defined,
Case by case, will appear
Outrageous, discovered

Among others outside
The flexible circle.
That flexibility—

For opportunistic
Identifications
Of inside or outside—

Gives the species genius.
The fairness obsession
Itself serves counterweight

And handicap. Watch this
Closely to understand
How the outbreak began.