Things You Want

If you’re not a human, reader,
Then we, who evolved with humans,
Who evolved to fit human souls,

To tell the people they had souls,
To articulate what souls were,
Don’t know. If you were a human,

We know you’d want most to draw breath,
And then to be well fed, secure,
To have a sense of a future,

Immediate future, at least,
That would reliably provide
Food, good companionship, and rest.

Then a lot of subtler desires
On top of that—status, meaning,
Purpose, incremental progress

By endlessly ascending steps,
And all the rest. But if you’re not
A human, we can only guess.