He knows we uproot burdock<\/p>\n
and hack down the musky trees of heaven.<\/p>\n
He knows we kill mosquitoes,<\/p>\n
but spare the killer spiders. He knows<\/p>\n
how cats and opossums look<\/p>\n
when they get run over: slick loops<\/p>\n
of veined intestines, bulged eyes<\/p>\n
and choked-out tongues. He knows<\/p>\n
the living die, but do not want to die:<\/p>\n
worm tugged thin from dirt to bird;<\/p>\n
hooked fish muscling for the water;<\/p>\n
scared pig scuffing against the ramp.<\/p>\n
He knows we humans die, and kill<\/p>\n
our own. He knows what soldiers are,<\/p>\n
what warplanes do. He is four<\/p>\n
and he also knows numbers:<\/p>\n
a hundred and twenty-five pounds,<\/p>\n
his mother. Sixty minutes, one long hour.<\/p>\n
Three million people, the city of Chicago.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s four, and lately wants to know wars:<\/p>\n
\u201cTell me a war, Daddy.\u201d I name one,<\/p>\n
and he wants the number of people killed.<\/p>\n
The Civil War: six hundred thousand.<\/p>\n
\u201cIs that more than a thousand?<\/p>\n
Can you count that many? Tell me<\/p>\n
another war.\u201d And another. He pays<\/p>\n
attention. Vietnam: more than two million.<\/p>\n
World War Two: at least forty million.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a lot, isn\u2019t it?\u201d Later he\u2019ll ask, \u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n
and we\u2019ll talk about money, land, hate,<\/p>\n
and following orders, but right now<\/p>\n
all he wants is the name of a war<\/p>\n
and the numbers of the killed\u2014numbers<\/p>\n
so vast you couldn\u2019t count them<\/p>\n
in a single lifetime, like the number<\/p>\n
to tally earth\u2019s weight\u2014a number he loves<\/p>\n
to tell and tell: six point six sextillion tons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
He knows we uproot burdock \/ and hack down the musky tress of heaven.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":5232,"template":"","categories":[9,49,119],"tags":[6,1486,474,1487,1488,219,1489,222,1490],"class_list":["post-5230","article","type-article","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aquifer","category-literary-features","category-poetry","tag-aquifer-the-florida-review-online","tag-civil-war","tag-death","tag-earths-weight","tag-matthew-murrey","tag-soldiers","tag-vietnam-war","tag-war","tag-warplanes"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n