Domain: Eukaryota
It’s not just the nucleus:
it’s the membrane-envelope
keeping us from oozing out;
it’s the matriarchal mitochondria
tracing us back before even Eve.
Kingdom: Animalia
Sometimes we forget
that we are animals, too-
we love to expunge
the evidence.
Phylum: Chordata
Musculature is not enough.
We need to grow a fucking backbone,
prove ourselves capable of contortions.
Class: Mammalia
We reject the reptilian brain.
We reject the scaled skin.
We reject the gills.
We demand the milk.
Order: Primates
Little fingers, little tails.
Eyes that seem to know.
& we hide in the trees.
Family: Hominidae
& what is so great
about the Great Apes?
The bonobos, the gorillas, the chimpanzees – sure.
But then comes the fourth.
Genus: Homo
Struggling to become upright/upstanding/upheavers.
Striding into the scrum.
Leaving antiquity, entering the man-made universe.
Species: H. sapiens
It’s not enough to conquer.
We must humiliate, as well:
subjugate, colonize, destroy.
The natural world?
No. The human one.
Caitlin Johnson holds a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Lesley University. Her work has appeared in Carcinogenic Poetry, Foliate Oak Literary Magazine, Narrative Northeast, Pembroke Magazine, Vagina: The Zine, and Wild Quarterly, among other outlets. A chapbook, Boomerang Girl, was published in 2015 by Tiger’s Eye Press, and a full-length collection, Gods in the Wilderness, was published in 2016 by Pink.Girl.Ink. Press.
Foxglove Journal 