The Hadza: a waltz The Suit: a square dance I am just a moment, not momentous, here for now on earth and in time. I have an easy rhythm with the good for nothing soil, the thorny brush, the biting flies, the sinking water holes. I have other things I take round wrapped in a blanket carried on my back, a bow and arrows, knife and pipe, some good smoke I swapped for honey, running from a dripping hive I smoked of heavy bees. (It stings my eyes, the smoke, the honey rings my wrist like a golden stream of sun.) I have a wife as well, for now, and she has some things, some pots in which she boils the sap that drips from the desert rose, drips like the chilly silver of the moon, distilling thorn and poisoning the tips of our arrowheads. I have some luck in hunting too, for now, and with my arrows tipped in deadly drops can down all but the largest prey and then there’s meat for all. Hunger and the sun and moon mark the day, deepen and lift the darkness, sharpen and dull the scent, blur and focus the sound, prickle and silken the skin. But none of it is mine, not the silence, not the dark, not the day. Just a moment. Who the hell are you? You who have no crops or livestock wealth or leaders, epidemics, social classes. Free from bosses, bills, taxes, money, schedules, you are ill-defined, a faded star without a constellation of cheap or peak oil, blood diamonds, large scale war, détente, diplomacy, an all consuming afterlife. My god, how do you live without cathedrals, inquisitions, gilt reliquaries holding bits of bone, confessions, guilt, the wrath of someone else’s god? I am… just a moment… I have a drive to satisfy a hunger rarely felt. I broker structured fractioned M&As carbon transfers credit default swaps tweet with hashtags blog and like I’m Baby Einstein baby I’m personally trained my life is coached, politically correct I text all of my thoughts I celebrate with gifts and drinks I fundraise for and drink some more to National Whoever Day and Anything Awareness Month muffled buffered gotta run I spin I doctor wheel and deal walk and dodge a virtual reality of best and routine practices couple up and drift apart partner trade and swap the top scoot the reaper run from life now keep busy all go round who has the time? Mia 2016