I live by necessity,

I compromise my desires

for security.  Ideals

compromised for base comforts.

 

I play by rules I believe

to be fundamentally

unfair.  I envy the gulls

I lie watching at the coast.

 

They live by urge - fly here, fly

there - investigate a pile

of seaweed, take off out to

sea to sit and bob for hours.

 

I envy the fox, living

by instinct, crossing fields

and gardens, looking for prey,

sly-shy - fulfilling nature.

 

I am human: sophistry

complexicate, advocate,

initiate - civilised

into clever distraction.

 

For my civilisation,

mandatory costs lead me

to pine a loss I cannot

define.  That I cannot attach

any grief to other than: