A Note

Two creatures pawing at a pill
That had dropped to the kitchen floor,
Then at a dried flower on a shelf.

Boredom’s a great motivator
For the brainier animals—
It’s not true curiosity.

These beasts don’t really want to know
What they don’t know, much as they want
Something to preoccupy them,

Staring at an apparently
Motionless, cluttered stretch of shelves.
It’s just a bit shocking to spot,

As one of the more murderous
Cooperators, a human,
Other monsters also get bored

And don’t know what to do with it,
Haven’t yet learned to worship it,
Either (few if any humans

Really have, anyway). Without
Boredom, what’s intelligence but
Residue of second-hand minds?

And there he slumped, top of the pile,
No idea left what he should do,
Or should have done, save leave a note.