I sent greetings to the Chinese and the Hindus and the Africans.

I wished that I might live to see if the bombs fell

and what the people did afterward.

Then I appreciated that, following any resolution of such affairs—

of bombs or none, airborne plagues or none—

I would wish in this same fashion to live to see

what they did

when a billion starved

when four or five billions, produced in the uncontrolled birthorgies of the devout and the innocent, over-horded this little globe

what they did when the metals ran thin—in a century or so