Assimilate (rewritten)

[laltieri0]

EDIT 3:

Assimilation: a vulture.
It's gutting preservation, encircling custom
to pick us apart, rip at the ridge
of our fastening sinews. 

We tremor, clutching
to convention with the last gasps
in our lilliputian lungs.

In safeguard we cluster,
collect our bodies in the street to blanket
the fear of disintegration, to confound
this carnivore, lazy above us.

Frantic! Beguile
lest habit's beak shreds
our body, this mouse:
culture's diminutive corpse.


EDIT 2

"Nesting"

Assimilation guts preservation. Only
convention fastens us to custom.
Conserve like minded company
but coalesce publicly
lest habit's beak
shreds us like a mouse--
culture's diminutive corpse.



Edit :
"Assimilate"
Alteration or individual preservation?  Only
convention fastens us
to culture lest habit's beak
shreds it like a mouse,
this diminutive corpse.

original: 
Alteration or preservation?  Only
retrospection fastens us
to convention lest habit's beak
swallows it like mice,
these diminutive corpses.