First Last

All the horizon lines
and hatchets sing us free

prosody these pieces
of the real

what we allow into
that field and what permits us

malice the salvages of
steeples burned
out long ago

places unpeopled become
peopled the "last
first people"

the first last

but will any one be left to
convert your testament to action?

crude dries up we are
too many million to system

we turn to shale
we turn to corn
strategic resources issue alibis

the violence in pro-
cessions
in longer
marches a violence
of number

what will
happen they begin in songless
ness a path
of giants paved by
Malthus

strange math
which makes the world up.