He never had to learn these arcane tools
The patient farmer of long ago
Beyond the hundreds of devices
Carefully curated over generations
The lore of their meticulous use
Beyond shovel hayrake bag basket bin moldboard and share
The accoutrements for the beast that pulls the plow
The implements for reaping and threshing
The apparatus for building and razing
The lore of cottage industry pottery textile and childrearing
Instruments of the homeliest ancientest sort
But the wisps of metal etched into maps of circuitry
The armatures of artificial energy the stubborn polymers
Bore no emphasis nor held no sway
When the barley ripened and the chickens browsed

We embarked upon an irreversible progress
Like a king in a small kingdom
Encompassed within its hostile frontiers
We traverse the narrow countryside
Upon both the recent and the obsolete roads
We tune to the familiar radio station
That emits as-yet unfamiliar programming
The music and the scenery impose novel responsibilities
That may or may not comport
With the norms that church and school inculcated
In the days of local television and the exclusivity of gasoline
Of domestic animals and household appliances large and small

We discovered new efficiencies new sources of power
We effected a revolution in transportation and communication
Conscripts complied with the command to serve
Other served with more complete volition
And all obeyed the mandates of traffic light and turn signal
Of income tax and compulsory education
Or suffered retribution when they demurred
We are freer now we deign to imagine
Now that we flout with impunity these old morose compulsions
Or have we replaced them perhaps
With compulsions more diffuse if more variable
The expensive intoxicant the garish consumer product
The aggressive vehicle the garment aggrandizing a brand
The antagonistic haircut announcing an alliance
And all vociferate their respective tribal shibboleth

Death death to our adversaries
Let them suffer whom we have designated as beneath our remark
The foreign the ugly the weak the abnormal the secretive the impure
Who threaten us with their peculiarity
Who betray us with their lust for survival
Who victimize us with their mutterings of peace and justice
Let them bathe in tears themselves their families and their compatriots
Who do not fulfill our expectations of them
Death to those who do not espouse the doctrine of our superiority
For we are the best ones according to the criteria
That we ourselves have established
We defend our ancient rights with merciless assault
To lay waste all we survey even our own possessions
As overt demonstration and gentle persuasion
And none are safe until our demands are met
And even then they will be subject to our decree

Who are these coming to the retail establishment
What apartment complexes and single-family homes
Are emptied of these eager shoppers holiday happy
Toward what shelves and display units are they tending
Will they park their cars in the broiling lot
And unfold their strollers in the pitiless sun
Will they read labels and compare prices
Or are they simply seizing the opportunity to visit the emporium
Museum of vendables shrine to the commodities
Before it vanishes in the reeking fumes of about-to-be

And for all the expertise that sustained him into adulthood
The farmer died of a disease now curable
And never enjoyed the benefits of compulsory education
And therefore never knew the world beyond his acre
But the thought never arose that he might want to know
When the barley mysteriously failed to ripen
And the chickens fell before the wholly recognizable fox
And let us who are ignorant forgive the ignorance around us