Empathy is an interesting drug

I could have overdosed on anxiety without you

I’m not angry

Just

Acute with old cuttings

Hardwired for sin and soft tips

Our manifest pain-pleasure:

Empathy is an entertaining tug

In your abdomen when you can feel

It’s only a sly explosion of sensation

Released from the need

To shrug off your instincts

To sequester your inner ape

I’m not angry

Just alive

Just a junkie when it comes to

This thing we all do;

See another’s point of view

Empathy could be our God

Understanding we’re all apart together

Undead and ever-evolving

I’m a lioness hearing a car horn

I’m a swamp wallaby smashing through ferns

A fox fleeing a farm hillside

A lyrebird you will never find

Calling, calling, from a cave you can’t reach

Because its Autumn and it’s my duty

To remind you of this strange solution to your unease:

Empathy

Is a forgiving trip

But how sweet it is to feel

You’re not all one.