The Invention of Comparison

How early? Chemotaxis
Maybe, down a gradient
Of concentration, this way
Serves hunger better than that—

It was a wrong turn, that first one,
Whenever, whatever it was,
That first act of comparison,
Life cursed by evaluation.

Oh no, we suppose not, could not
Have lived on any other way,
But now here we are, day to day,
How are we today? How is this

Compared to that, compared to then,
Compared to them, compared to us,
Which way should we slide out of bed,
How best to live better off dead?