It drove us from
our lambent caves,
made us settle,
farm, and raid.
We grew to reap,
then grow some more,
we spliced the globe
and claimed gold shores.
It demanded order,
sense, and peace
to balance human
wants and needs.
We taught our kin
so they could keep
our towns alight
and hillsides green.
It then forced us
to send those
same kin to
red, untimely ends.
From all those
who sought to
take our lot,
the young and
lithe defend.
It spurred each
great discovery,
entire fields
of study, from
medicine to astronomy,
in our quest to hold
more time, whether
we hold it
physically or in the
grips of understanding.
It gifted us camaraderie;
it cursed us with brutality.
It is the spark
of our humanity
and the seed
of our base savagery.
Scarcity:
Our divine blessing.
Our eternal enemy.
pm poetry 