The next one is called "Ultima Ratio Regum".
Louis XIV, I think it was, who had embossed on his cannon.
Ultima ratio regum, meaning the final argument
of kings, which is the cannon.
Ultima ratio regum.
The guns spell money's ultimate reason in letters
have led on the spring hillside, but the boy
lying dead under the olive trees was
too young and too silly to have been
notable to their important eye.
He was a better target for a kiss.
When he lived, tall factory hooters
never summoned him, nor did restaurant plate glass
doors revolve to wave him in.
His name never appeared in the papers.
The world maintained its traditional wall
around the dead with their gold sunk deep as a well.
Whilst his life intangible as a stock exchange rumor
drifted outside.
Too lightly, he threw down his cap one day
when the breeze threw petals from the trees.
Beyond flowering walls sprouted with guns,
machine gun anger quickly scythed the grasses.
Flags and leaves fell from hems and branches, the tweed
cap rotted in the Nettles.
Consider his life, which was valueless
in terms of employment.
Hotel ledgers news fails.
Consider one bullet in 10,000 kills a man.
Ask, was so much expenditure justified
on the death of one so young and so silly
lying under the olive trees?
Oh, world, oh, death.