Keep to Yourself

But it’s not an entity,
Even when contiguous.
More of a population,

A polity, seafaring,
Exfoliating its spores
To colonize other shores,

And they, in turn, change themselves,
Evolve new variations,
Local customs, specialties,

And you can end an empire,
Burn down Nineveh, sack Rome,
Let weeds overgrow Chang’an,

But have you removed what’s Greek
From Mediterranea
What’s Mayan from Mexico?

There’s some kind of qualia
To the runaway mutants
Exploring and exploiting

The system they eat to end,
And maybe there never was
A monster wasn’t plural,

Life that wasn’t many lives,
Divisions and extensions,
One that could keep to oneself.