the average american lives nearly eighty years
three dead americans could tell you all there is
every point of order to our complex institutions
all our worthy struggles since the violent revolution
and they needn't overlap
nor leave the slightest gap
these united states three human lives
seven dead americans could go back all the way
before the spaniards settled florida
or the dutch took hudson bay
before the swedes controlled new jersey
or the french developed maine
seven dead americans and no more europeans
and they needn't overlap
nor leave the slightest gap
the conquests of a continent in seven human lives
there are whales with the scars from the harpoons of new bedford
there are sturgeon in the mountains who were there before the white man
bald eagles tend to die a little younger
some specimens who remember ronald reagan
the average pueblo indian lives to seventy-two
a hundred brave dead indians could tell you what they knew
about the colorado river and the orbit of the moon
about the power in the kivas both the ancient and the new
and they needn't overlap
nor leave the slightest gap
most of pueblo culture in a hundred human lives