Shadows Have Genes

Track 2 from the album Havoc Monk Unseen.

A pigeon carries twigs to its nest
A cuttlefish blows sand away
A beaver builds a damn and manipulates
the world around it for many miles
Sometimes an animal may benefit by
Moving an object that is
Another animal and they already have muscles
So they're easier to move
A flower uses insects to move its pollen
A library uses humans to move its books
Finally it is the fish's own muscles
That the angler uses to close the gap between them
The nightingale, its song affects me
As though of hemlock I had drunk
Imagine how much devastation it could
Cause to other nightingales
A parasite queen needn't exert her own jaws
If she can make some workers kill their own mother
A martian accustomed to universal trust
Would struggle to understand the art of secrecy
A tree casts a shadow
The shadow helps the tree to make more trees
Some shadows are better than others
Shadows have genes