i’ve never seen a grenade
explode in person
but still somehow i know
the impersonal truth
is explicit and graphic
and my fine modern life
will fracture the very same way
and four thundering years
of seven different strains
have blistered and knifed
and buried in coal
any mind I had before
we caffeinate, capitulate
and care less and less
unless our shrapnel
can be pawned for gold
our blood-blackened rubble sold
this for gasoline
that for guarantees
that we will always be beholden
always be distracted
absolutely incapable
of finding the traction
to just drive home
to just reconstruct
til everything
is one once more
til we are no longer
at war