they're speaking

in other structures of time a council – we could call it a council – met (we could say it’s meeting) somewhere in the roundabout of species, human wasn’t invited, as a spontaneous gesture of thinking nature. fungus, bacterium, amphibian, water and fire, insect, mammal, spider, everyone important really

during the gathering it’s agreed fish will lead the way and fish, being smart and woefully tired of human negligence and stupidity, team up with virus which, like human, hasn’t been invited and exists on the edges of life. how perfect thought fish to partner with a dubious life form to attack another dubious life form. does fish volunteer for this mission? does it owe the others one? is it the big risktaker or just in the mood? we don’t have the minutes and no one’s talking. or no one’s listening. hard to tell

where do we start fish asks virus

china … wuhan

should it be a warning or should we really get them

warnings have never worked with humans, the vast majority only respond to fear and force

and the council moves its venue to the distributed convention center of human flesh so it has front row seats to watch