I Call This A Conclusion

what are pirates
if little kids
are taught
in insipid cartoons
that pirates share?
that pirates are fair?

what are pirates
if those kids grow up
and learn what pirates
really are?

what are pirates
if those kids forget
those insipid cartoons?

what are pirates
if they remember?

what are pirates
if a construct,
a momentary diversion,
a lark,
a blip on a radar
in an ever-evolving world,
definitions forever changing,
the static status quo
always shifting,
truths somehow altering,
facts here today and gone tomorrow,
the dinosaurs extinct forever
and then back again,
struggling into the popular consciousness
despite constant changes
about what they really were,
our fascination with a world
we'll never know
our insistence on fact,
or on ideals,
our hopes,
or our reality,
our fiction
demanding verisimilitude
except when it's cool,
and then being true to yourself
becomes a liability,

and what if history
is a different story
from the one we know?

well, I wish
the pirates knew...

Just Another Word in the Dictionary - Zooid

Zooid n. any one of the individual members of a compound or colonial animal organization

an organization
that behaves
as if made up of
a bunch of animals:

It's getting hard to tell
who isn't
part of a zooid...
(and I know animals,
so let me tell them:
no offense,
animals!)