staying alive

those little gerygones they just know

without apprenticeship or diploma

how to stay alive

they find their own food

meet a mate

build a house

raise a family

accept risks

and their own tiny place

in the food chain

**

I guess we must’ve been like that

once

but we specialised

finding our roles in the village

and now

i can mark (and read) squiggles on a page

type tens of words a minute

i can browse supermarket shelves

and real estate websites

i can use an oven and a stove and a microwave

but in the real business of simply staying alive

well i outsource it, i guess

to farmers and builders and manufacturers

and bakers and millers and butchers and hosiers…

i can’t even make my own clothes.

Drop me in the forest

where money means nothing

and my human status

“top of the food chain”

would be as laughable

as the morning joke

the kookaburras tell.