agreements over coffee (spring 2007)

The sovereign entities met,
diplomatically at the door,
a strategic location, a neutral territory.

The exchange agreement
opened with pleasantries,
fair trade coffee,
the P.C. move.

The players didn’t speak of the technicalities
of the future arrangement:
the exchange of wealth and resources,
the alliances and defense agreements.
Nor their history of traumatic violence,
of personal repression

but rather of their tribes’ rich history
of cultural expression.
And though their advisors
eagerly anticipated
the boom
the arms race
the liberal spread of open borders.

They smiled and held hands
presenting
to their respective parties
the formalities of
civilized
mutually beneficial partnership.


((((*from class* I forget what the assignment was)))))