Essence and Justification
To supply the motivation for the essence and justification of terror,
its necessity, its limits.
—V.I. Lenin
There is a machine at the end of the block.
It is a child playing jacks, the wide sweep of the hand
like the closeting of a bird’s wing.
A tree chances a dropped branch
hugging a power line to the ground; the man cutting
the branch aligns with a desire for removal
of possibility. Walk the sidewalk, unafraid.
You construct eventuality. The machine exhibits
lust and in its shadow anthills arise.
This night men will enter a house
and take willing participants. The fiction
is participation, though everyone has a part.
With daylight a woman in a sea green dress
assumes herself conspicuous. She pauses before
certain houses, scratches a leg, shows some skin. 
Essence and Justification
Where Humans Live Roaches