artifice is nature: ours

artifice is just the new name for nature,

artifice is the nature we make

it's in our nature

it's entirely ours

not entirely safe

but nothing ever was

artifice is red in tooth and claw
and deadlier still by far than all
that the nature of the old school
(we still belong)
can bring against us now,

ow, ow

to do us new harm -

which it will. we'll die

regardless,

pierced, punctured by wounds
made by any number of things
in any number of ways,
including our own devices
of our own design.

It's human nature, artifice
is human nature

humankind

's not unnatural at all.

There's not a thing unnatural

about what you make

or fake,

like a bird

adorning its plumage with accessories
to attract a mate

we do the same

with our language,
our bearing,
our visage,
our genome,

and our fate.