No One Gets the First Shot

That misfired centuries ago.
You’re still living with the backfire.
The whole of human history

Amounts to matching behaviors,
Hungers, and lusts that don’t change much
To what new technologies do.

The history of the cannon
Is just another case in point,
A gory, blood-soaked case in point.

First you threw things, then you fired things.
You only cared that they killed well.
You’re so bad at not getting killed.

Progress would be technology
That actually defended you.