Game Theory

Upon a pebble’s elliptical flight,

A cosmos coalesces out of blue,

Chaotic as it rises into light,

An ocean boundless, fathomless, and new.

The naked cell ascends, devoid of name,

And stumbles, all at once, into the wheel;

One day, the fire flashes into flame,

And thus begins our stringent game of steel.

We wring our Earth exhaustively and dry,

Let cheap commodities forever flow;

Let consumption be the self by which we buy,

And war the pulse that will not cease to grow.

Let everything be priced in money’s reign,

Even elections staged beneath false skies;

Let seas creak underneath their plastic stain,

And winds grow cheaper as their spirit dies.

Then suddenly, the scent of Middle Age,

Built pixel-sharp within our 4K phones;

Our children, illiterate fugitives on stage,

While sorrow fills the freight cars to their bones.