Ecologies

Cats patrol the boundaries
and geese saunter free
around the acres and acres of jail.
More animals—rats and mice
and birds—filling in the niches
bordering a human ecosystem
where, inside, it’s sometimes
difficult to tell the predators
from the prey. Within this
environ of hard edges
separate species blend—
incarcerees, sheriffs
ministers and med-staff
all competing
for the resource
of time. Time done,
time needed, time spent,
time borrowed,
all eyes on the clocks
and the calendars
human animals
use to corner time
as geese and cats
and mice and rats
live relatively free
outside the peopled
confines—animal instinct
mapping uneasy lines
of division
calculated, in their natures,
with the same fuzzy math
of human justice.