First Movers

Socialism is good and capitalism is bad -  

A truth universally acknowledged,

Which you whisper in your last breath,

And I penetrate the widow beside the deathbed. 

Before you and I shared sweat and spit,

We floated in each other’s urine - 

You swallow, you process, and you excrete.

And we pondered what we both could leave behind 

When it was time to leave. 

When, through the toilet bowl, we shared excrement and semen 

And grew our fortunes on adjoining bookshelves,

We debated inheritance taxes, private property, elites 

In that extended age when man spends all his force 

Producing things out of his feelings.

We never knew if we would share each other’s blood 

In the throes of a battlefield, 

If we would use our own tools or try and split the tissue of our father’s penis.

And, in the end, perhaps, we tended to believe that 

You and I were like two Thebans in Athens.

We both could be victors,

Because you prayed to Mars, and I prayed to Venus,

And no one knew if consolation could be guaranteed by Theseus or Jesus.