Internally on Trial

A person is not the animal.
A person is an interaction,
An interference pattern produced

Between that animal and culture,
Especially linguistic culture.
The desires of the animal, culture,

And person who is produced by them
Are never identical, and this,
For the person, is always stressful.

Animal has wants. Culture has rules
And expectations. But the person
Can only negotiate with both.

This matters for diet. This matters
For grooming, sex, and conversation.
This matters for personal success.

Persons take stock of the animals
They are in their cultural contexts
And then try to find a way to be

A person who is not too awful
For what surrounding culture expects
For an animal of that type, but

Not too destroyed by culture itself
To be able to be animal
More or less contented when at rest.