Quid pro



Herein we decree
death by degrees
literally rendered
dialysis is
life through destruction
dissection of blood
into waste streams
sluicing watery slags
of metabolic dross
convoluted urinal
invading veins
with straight steel slashes
and picofurans
leached from the tubes
of molded plastic
microetched
by the slow boil
of a faltering heart

we didn't tell you
about the ecology
of metered death
how the cleansing
of your own organism
pollutes the world
you did not hear 
seven billion bucks
quietly burn up
in the incinerators
of our invert Dachau
while babies in Kenya
die of AIDS and malaria

you had no idea 
you would't live forever
each day flowing
into the next
like the sun
like the breathing
of a newborn
like a guarantee...
heavenly vengeance
is usually Zeno's

as in paradox
or the blood's irony