The Dispossessions

Garbage builds the libraries
Of all living behaviors.
More discarded life jackets

Pile on the shores of Lesbos,
And the fact that Earth’s traffic—
Even rivers washing down

To escape into oceans—
Goes two ways, at minimum,
Stands evidence. Remember

The dumps of Oxyrhynchus,
The north coast of Africa,
Sappho and Herodotus?

If any stream is moving,
Someone’s moving against it.