Replacement

It’s kind of a creepy wiggle word,
Tiptoeing around the crocodile
Pit of more explicit, wicked words

Like conquest, genocide, extinction.
It’s wisdom. Foolish speculation
Might suggest that all these replacements

Evidenced by ancient genetic
And archaeological patterns
Indicated violent conflict,

But it’s all only circumstantial,
Your Honor, even at best. We have
No reasonable doubt re replacements,

But we wouldn’t want to claim humans
May have always attacked each other.
We would rightly be attacked for that.