How arrogant
to call ourselves civilized
when the animal beneath the skin
has only learned better vocabulary.
We sharpened stones,
then sharpened borders,
then sharpened laws
until cruelty became administrative.
No other animal
builds a cage
and writes a philosophy
about why its prisoner deserves it.
We invented gods,
governments,
markets,
and a thousand elegant excuses
for wanting more than someone else.
The wolf does not hoard
what it cannot eat.
The ocean does not charge rent
for the water beneath it.
Yet somehow
a creature born from dust
can inherit a fortune
and decide that another\'s hunger
is an acceptable cost.
Perhaps intelligence
was never our salvation.
Perhaps it was simply
the first weapon
we learned to turn inward.
We are the only species
that can understand suffering
in exquisite detail
and still choose to cause it.
And then we named ourselves
humanity
as though the word itself
were evidence of virtue.