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A behavioral ecologist
Finds that fleeing into the middle
Of the pack doesn’t always protect

Against predators. Great, thinks the small
Thing caught out on the periphery.
Just stay where I am then and pretend

I’m not scared? Run randomly? Stay low?
It’s a beautiful day on the plains.
There’s food as far as the eye can see.

But, thinks the small one, some food is me.
And all of it is something living.
And the small one’s mind starts wandering.

What if life itself is consuming
Non-life, turning it into living
And dying, eating, being eaten?

Could life gnaw its way through the cosmos?
There’s a sudden commotion over
In the pack. Someone has been attacked.