Life on the Losing Side

Bodies can’t bear bodies far.
It takes teams of the living
To carry the single dead,

The well-loved or unloved dead,
And this matters. It matters
Since so many more have died

Than are now alive, and how
Can the outnumbered living
Bear this? The living try hard

To carry the staggering
Weight of the dead by heaving
Those bodies into corners,

Burying them in mass graves,
Burning fat and bones to ash
And then pouring out the ash.

It doesn’t work. It can’t work.
Every day there are more dead.
How can the living catch up

A century at a time
From millions of years behind?
If you can’t beat them, join them.