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..