i

listen, lily, when the romans
built an aquaduct, the gradient
varied by half the width of a finger
over
a hundred yards-any more the
water damaged the walls-
any less it stagnated..

they also enjoyed throwing
errant slaves to the eels
(so swings and roundabouts..)
in every great civilization
there exist contrast-but
what of today-what of
posterity?

ii

she says petulantly
wrong is wrong is wrong
cause monkeys clap themselves
(it was a rhetorical question really
and the reference to the simian illudes..)
but they will wonder at our food-
in particular pizza and all-meat,
but on the positive there is  prosthetics..
(she returns in a huff to her book..)

iii

what is she reading?
early victorian-
bucolic tales..

we were raised in their shadow
the schools and prisons
of similar design..

tiny window-dicipline
terrible food..
corruption..

ghosts and superstition-
flora thompson reccounts
a young man´s suicide

he hung himself from a tree
they buried him at the crossroads
(in unhallowed ground)

they drove a spike
through his entrails..
why is suicide taboo?

a good question lily
upon which i will not
dwell..