You walk the jungle floor.
The snakes snap
recklessly reminding of an earlier time
when creatures weren’t out to attack
and life didn’t feel like a constant threat.

You think fondly of those earlier days
when you had faith in a system.
When there was a society
that ran smoothly.

Now the jungle out there
is what runs
and you in it
along with everyone else
because we all decided
that faith in our differences
was more important
than our commonalities.

Look at your victory, then,
along with the rest of us.