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One day I heard an elder say,
"Look to the beginning of things
to know whether they are good or bad.
Time puts a veneer of acceptability
on every action of evil and deceit."
And so I looked at my own civilization,
humming with nuclear power plants,
internet exchanges, and space stations.
And I asked myself his question:
"What was the origin of all these things?"
I saw that much of what we have began in war,
or began in the preparation for war:
nuclear power, the internet, satellites,
freeze dried food, plastic wrap …
And if the tides of time should turn someday
in ways expected for a war-like race,
all these things we know may go down in war.
If the night should flare into a mushroomed light,
we may, if we are lucky, go backward again
only so far as wooden clubs and rocks
we sometimes use to crack walnuts with.
