Well-Treated Goats

If you’re nice enough,
You’re welcome,
It’s allowed.

If you don’t believe
In human universals
Across all cultures,

Consider that candidate—
It’s ok to take stuff,
If you’re nice enough.

Hunting societies
Address prey with respect,
Thanking them for the nourishment,

Using terms of kinship,
Father whale,
Grandmother deer.

Or you tap the trees
To let their spirits know
You wouldn’t plan without them.

Consultation and respect,
Gratitude and flattery—
If you’re nice enough,

You can take stuff
Without repercussions,
Without punishment,

And from where do you learn
Properly nice behaviors
Addressed to the mute world?

From the chattering world
Of conspecifics,
Your model fellow humans,

For whom what matters often is
If you’re nice enough,
Respectful and grateful,

Maybe obsequious.
However many kinds
Of etiquette exist,

There are no populations
Without manners,
Beliefs about manners,

And an instinct
To address the world,
When you want something from it

With good manners
That are your local manners—
If not polite to whales and deer,

Then grateful to God
For the gifts of whales and deer,
And if not polite to God,

Then to whatever entity
You see as a source of resources.
Surely you’ve overheard

People thanking tools that work,
Stop lights for changing,
Alarms for not going off

While they get what they want,
Knowing if they’re nice enough,
It’s ok to take stuff.