we make great pets in poetry

pet ownership is just a conversation where
if there is any kind of clear confirmation
it turns out that you’re crazy
then again so is religion and
that’s a fad in developed nations too
you see I can pretend the cat is saying
“stop touching the laptop and pet me”
but at best he’s just saying “prrrow”
I can pretend I’m being rewarded for actions
or punished for infractions but at best
the sound of wind is all that I get
as the universe’s non-confirmation

over any one of our pinprick lifetimes
a woman or man is a plaything of the gods
but over the entirety of human history
the gods are a plaything of mankind
collectively we’ve slowly made them up
a candy floss of our hopes and our excuses
but in any one of our individual lives
we can be at the random whims of these
imaginary ethereal things our race
semi-intentionally managed to create
that were confected into existence
but have never really been there

religion is just a conversation where
if there’s any kind of clear confirmation
you need to talk other people into believe it
so you don’t have to accept you’re
probably just as crazy as shit
and oh the fantastical processes of
wounding and healing and charity and hate
that have spun out of the sugar of that
cotton candy dream of not actually being crazy
all in all here’s what I’d do
I’d rather talk to the cat or the dog
if it’s all the same to you