Unregenerate Humanity -edit2

[dukealien]

edit1;

Unregenerate Humanity


We learn that unlike rats’ or crows’
our adult neurons never split
to generate new cells:  mind grows
by forming new connections.  It
relies not on rat-cleverness
to learn a maze, imprinting on
erupting all-forgetfulness,
but rules cemented from its dawn
of consciousness to solve each maze
and then to build them.  Minds are thus
conservative, each rat-like craze
for novelty a heedless fuss.
In time, our aging neurons die–
more human, that, than multiply.

---

@alexorande - Thanks for the well-informed critique.  I didn't know "curtailed sonnet" was an actual thing... thought I was just chracterizing a Shakespearean with lines reduced to tetrameter.

I've made changes to address some, not all, of your criticisms.  For one other, my defense explanation is labeled "Spoiler" below   .

Thanks again!

The "s' "es in L1 are, as I see it, necessary because they're plural (more than one rat and one crow) and possessive (the splitting neurons belong to the rats and crows).  Fully unpacked, the sentence fragment would read,

     We learn that unlike rats’ (neurons) or crows’ (neurons) our adult neurons never split...

I realize the implication could be structured differently

    We learn that unlike (the way it is with) rats or crows, our adult neurons never split...

which calls for a little more poetic license as well as, more strongly, a comma.