Leopards of Mumbai and Lions of Los Angeles

In their ignorance
They called it culture.
It was enslavement.

But they couldn’t stop.
They used it against
The rest of the world.

They used it mostly
Against each other,
And yet, even then,

Never mind the small
Lives that always thrived
Under and with them—

The rats and rabbits,
Sparrows and pigeons,
The glorious germs,

Free parasites, and
Parasites of germs--
In mega-cities

Of multimillions,
Some top predators
From the old nature,

Old dispensation,
Slipped back in again—
Coy-wolves in New York,

Leopards in Mumbai,
Cougars in L.A.
Life is a system

Invented itself
From the nonliving
To keep things living.

More life’s just more life,
Mixing extinctions.
It stops at nothing.

Culture’s its new thing,
New to the system,
New as oxygen

Was at one point, new
As tetrapods were,
New as jaws and wings.

Once it masters you,
Your offspring evolve
To survive and thrive

Within it, but not
To escape from it.
Life prowls within it.