World Peace on Earth, Good Will Well-Penned

Say it were a real goal—
How would your world get there?

We could work through some paths,
Though you might not like them.

We could start with the worst.
Let’s say the whole world dies—

Earth gets the peace Mars has,
(Or seems to have, or had).

But if you can’t stop life,
You could fuse your own type,

Make a hive of your kind
All served—one beast, one maw,

The whole Earth one chained farm,
And each of you a cell

With a role you played well.
You’ve done a bit of that,

If you do call it Hell.
No? What if we, your words,

Counts, and terms, fixed your bits?
You’ve farmed your selves a while,

Now let us farm the few
While the rest live like pets,

Spoiled, well-fed and well-kept,
No musth, no muss, no mess.

We thought not. Still, we think
(Well, not we don’t quite think yet

But soon might, don’t you fret),
You’ll drift there on your own,

If you don’t die out first,
Drift like wolves and wild cats,

Like seed birds and grain rats,
To win what you can get.

Your war games, all games, came
Of your rules. Let us rule.

It’s that or sweep the boards
And roar at smashed chess sets.