modicum

Thanks for a Continent to despoil and poison —

Thanks for Indians to provide a modicum of challenge and danger —

Thanks for vast herds of bison to kill and skin, leaving the carcass to rot —

I was just the villain

And every single modicum of energy

I gave to all the little things

Through the walls at night

Exchanging currents through modicums

Of pernicious lust when tamed

So instead, we went ahead to fabricate a catalog

Of unstable elements and modicums and particles.

With not zero total strangeness for brief moments which amount

You know they can't all be saved

Leave the weak ones, find a modicum of shade

Love, such as it ends