A Scientific Poem

Masses of flesh creeping on wobbly bones
Across the dirt, colliding and consuming
And returning to the earth. When it bleeds
A red stain taints the ferric ground, and seeds
Of dissension among mattered aspects sing, but somewhere deep
Under the ripple of water and the broad caves, feet
Of cisterns and the distant calling waves, rivers
Striking together like the hum of parallel keys
On a piano, drenched with rain and windblown leaves,

Creeping from the cities' seaves. Black
Darkness of clouds and the thundering storm, a forlorn
Vision of the falling axe, the hammer on the ruddy
Backs of metal planes -- and the sickles taking grain:

And if I'd known these things were a threat to me
The waves would have clamoured and joined in pain
In revolt from the mountains like the distant strain
Of a rising trumpet, the hurricane blast
Of the titans' horn, and the breath,
My last.