The Whole Mess Heaped in an Extraordinary Order

Humans make a game of almost
Everything, and then a story
Of almost every kind of game,

Including life itself, of which
Humans, games, and stories are just
Small, recently appearing specks.

Thus, for us, ways of life become
Strategies that are being played,
And life has losers and winners,

The long unfolding of hunger
Emerging from un-hungry rocks
Assayed by many narratives,

Stories of cooperation
In violent competitions,
With the tales themselves competing.

And whenever there are extremes
Of winning, there are more losers,
And the more of life is losing,

The more outrageous the winners.
These inequalities themselves
Make for more competitive tales

About games spun out of control.
In this day and age, for instance,
How would you prefer to explain

A world of eight billion people
Built on multitiered supply snarls
In which fertility’s plunging

While the population’s rising,
And occasional sperm donors
Sire close to a hundred children?

Bet you’ve got some story for it.
Bet it involves losers, sinners,
Arcs, fools, saints, winners. Bet there’s stakes.