The Thought of Parasites

The animal might prove
Imaginative;
It might be infested

With words as with lice,
Little nits in the head.
But it cannot be

Another animal
Other than itself.
When the animal dies,

Imagination
Proves weak. The nits move on
To more vacant heads,

If there are vacancies.
Many of them moved
Well before the creature

Collapsed and now dwell
With other animals.
They don’t think they’re weak.

They’re imaginative.
They may need the beasts,
But not any one beast.