Words to Start: Autumn by Mikko Harvey

93,651 guinea pigs

felt pain last year

during scientific experiments.

Noble pigs, we only wished

to know you! To know

ourselves through you,

and perhaps extract a tad

of profit from our knowledge

of you, and maybe in a few

isolated unfortunate instances

a smidge of pleasure too,

pre-approved for forgiveness

by the whiteness of our coats

and guided at times

by the light of our mission

to optimize beauty products

for safety and affordability,

so that even children

among us, given

humble allowances,

could feel glamorous

and somehow televised

while gazing, for instance, 

lovingly into the cages

that contain your brothers and sisters

(who are doing fine, by the way, 

if a bit lonely, a bit gnawed on 

by a constant, low-grade 

uncertainty). I was at 

the cafe the other day 

with my friend Lexi 

when she mentioned, offhand, 

she wished she could be held 

by a lover the way time 

itself held her. What 

would you make of that, 

dear pigs, if you could think? 

I myself didn’t think to ask 

because I was nervous and 

over-caffeinated, but I think 

she was referring 

to gentleness, and possibly 

acceptance, which are states 

humans tend to crave, 

believe it or not, 

though we are not so good 

at actually attaining them.

Then a particular noise 

on her phone signalled 

it was time to split 

the bill and say 

goodbye to each other.

As she walked away, 

I took out the small notebook 

containing my to-do list 

and, with immense satisfaction, 

crossed off just do your best

to be nice and not weird 

for three hours.