Headlines

It wins a race 
against itself 
on my bathroom floor,
sliver of a creature, 
house centipede
with too many legs,
hairy footed,
creepy in its
coordination, genius
of its own navigation. 
It is automation 
in miniature, 
able to skim
relative miles of tile, 
dust, dip, crack,
a marbled plain — 
in seconds, a miracle
of self direction. 
What a way
to start the day.
Last week sometime,

I read a headline,
in the Times, something
about a three-legged
lion crossing
an African river 
of crocodiles —
click here
to find out why.
I didn’t, caring
only that it succeeded, 
that it didn’t need
to take some 
calculated gamble
we attribute 
to other animals,
rather, it knew  
itself, understood 
what it could 
accomplish, and
did. Then 
somewhere in
New Zealand, 
 
the transmission 
tower that collapsed,
outages skidding across
whole regions
in an infrastructure 
fail. Three out of 
four of its legs 
unbolted, men
and media scurrying
to place blame,
cover up where
possible (as if
dysfunction 
so powerful 
can be hidden)
no one really
looking at process,
investigation,
how the thing
got there to begin
with, how it came
to be undone. 
Meanwhile, an insect 

with less than 
a raisin brain,  
manages hundreds
of legs at once, 
and a disabled lion 
successfully survives
a river of teeth
and angry hippos. 
And here we are, yes?
Tripping over  
our own two legs? 
Disassembling what
we have built,
unthinking, over-
thinking, dismantling,

falling? Are you
understanding the irony 
yet? The oxymoron 
of ourselves?
Go ahead and laugh.
There’s a bug
running up your pantleg.

Katherine Mercurio Gotthardt, copyright June 25, 2024, all rights reserved 

Revised June 27. 2024

Inspired by this LinkedIn post by Dr. Jason Price and this New York Times article.