The Children of Homs

"Cooperation is murder."

Today in the news of blood
And chumminess, two stories
Collide, well-documented, glorious.

Experiments with children,
Chimpanzees and monkeys illustrate
How uniquely humans cooperate.

Kids encourage each other,
Share symbolic prizes, accumulate
Strategies, and accelerate,

While monkeys and apes compete
Solo for actual food they snatch
From each other, hoarding scraps.

Wonderful. We're unique,
We instinctively coordinate
Where other primates subordinate.

And then, swipe the screen, change
The channel, turn the printed page.
In Syria, another outrage,

Security forces decimate
The rebellious town of Homs
Filling the streets with bones.

Mutilated bodies rot
In sewage-filled rooms
Where various tortures were filmed.

The highly synchronized
Cooperation of armies and police
Secure the citizenry, piece by piece.

Cooperating people founded
The civilization, cooperating people
Defended it against evil.

Cooperating people invented guns
For cooperating people to shoot
At cooperators in hot pursuit.

Cooperation created tools
For more cooperation--presses,
Radios, TVs, web addresses.

Cooperating people extracted
False confessions from former
Cooperators, teams of traitors.

And so on, and so on,
And vengeance to come, asking
Isn't this fun? Who lost? Who won?

Hugs to the winners already hugging
Each other, hugs all around!
Scattered dead ferment the ground.