The simple truth.

Easiest vegetable to grow-from seed to harvest.

If only we didn't expect
to dig up
truffles
after we
planted radishes.

This I know.

Everymomentuponmoment I listen

for my heart to skip a beat 

hurtlingdownthepathtowardtheend, 

breaking up, 

reaching its expiration date. 

One day, death will be called Elevation 

like a word created under water achieves a new meaning. 

Only 

death cannot be altered

by re-naming.

Though riches and knowledge keep changing, death stays the same.

What we eat, defecate, and consume-

our grandparents never knew as food-

is now reconditioned, labeled and shipped anywhere

where cheap is the new gold standard

and a brand is worth more than the content. 

A young worker in China packages goods

he can't afford to buy; travels days and days by train

without pay

to visit his dying father 

across

the biggest empire in the East

that shipped tea and spices, porcelain and silk garments to a world frozen in grime 

and ignorance,

so he can tell his father 

how he's

building

tomorrow's

Ipads and jet wings,

heart valves. pain killers and dog food,

better and bigger exports China has ever known.

He hopes his father dies content and doesn't see his frayed coat imported from Somali.