On the Rise of Civilizations

Men of old had their vision:
to build a complexity in which
a thousand, ten thousand, ten million men
can reap the benefits of one another;

to abandon the wilderness, with its
meager portions and threat of starvation,
and find a flooding river valley in which to
compile men and knowledge and goods (and bads);

to be more efficient, not
relying on fickle animals and gathered plants,
but packing energy into tiny spaces,
to feed ten million men with little soil.

And so
they set to work.

We found the largest seeds,
we took the tallest grasses,
leaves were cast out in favor
of hearty kernels of protein, oil, sugars;

planting, planting, planting, planting,
and then reaping, reaping, reaping,
finding the juiciest, sweetest fruit,
and putting it back in the soil,

(from whence it came)

Repeating, repeating the process
for thousands of generations until
the seeds and the fruits, themselves
coming from fertile land, allow us to live in a fertile culture extending for thousands upon thousands upon more thousands of years.

The humble oat;
the noble, fortifying nuts -- almond, cashew, walnut;
the friendly green seed of the pumpkin and
the cheerful seed of the bright sunflower;
the fruit of the elegant grapevine and
the small, sweet, lovely cherry:

All the seeds sown by mankind
have come down to this:
my granola snack.