Unintended Consequences of Living

Sitting just outside
Of your thoughts the cats,
Until you noticed

You couldn’t see them.
Then you thought of them,
And of their breeding,

Since you’d been reading
Of experiments
To alter genomes

Of some rare species
Of brilliant songbirds
To try to save them,

Quite certain those will
Yield unintended
Consequences. Grain

Domestication
Led to storage rooms,
Led to mice and rats,

Led to hosting cats,
Led to pet moggies,
Led to massacres

Of songbirds, led to
You keeping an eye
On your porched house-cats,

Who keep slipping out
Of sight and your thoughts,
Headed for the spot

Where Tracy K. Smith
Writes poetry hides.
And who ever thought

Any bit of this
Was set to be one
Consequence of life?