Biodegradation

We are a conflicted species in many
ways, an inheritance bequeathed to all
living things endowed with the capacity
to adapt so they may above all things
survive in an atmosphere that offers
that capacity to those with few scruples
over gathering sustenance depriving
other life forms in the process. We can
always point to nature as responsible for
our belligerence across borders clinging
to tribe and clan, perceiving all others
as competitors, opponents, enemies
whose plans of territorial aggression
must be countered, lest we suffer for we
are the righteous and all others are the
blights upon humanity. By nature we are
also gregarious finding comfort and no
little security in the company of others
like ourselves -- none others need apply.
Now, alarmingly suddenly a new enemy
has surfaced whose conquest of humanity
makes no distinctions between borders
and we quail before its onslaught, felling
us one by one in horrific numbers. Now
we protect ourselves by disowning the
company of others, cloistering ourselves
in our little caves, quaking with fear.