The History of Man

Three Achaean raiders sit
in the plaza on top
of a heaping plate of
bureaucracy.
Which hums to itself
a tune about
a kettle
and a book.
The first raider scratches
his beard and
throws himself onto
the ground.
The other two look on
as he
melts into a puddle
and seeps through the cobblestones.
A market stand falls
onto the second Achaean raider,
and the third is
consumed by a large
hat.
The raiders slowly trickle
down
bureaucracy’s throat
and are carefully indigested,
then they are put into
separate com part ments
and are stored
for the Neolithic
Age. When it comes,
though, it prefers
to eat crème brûlée and
pot pie.