real history

a found poem

Real history
is the slow-crawl study
of small changes

From clan loyalties
to price ratios

Gradually shifting
tectonic plates
that suddenly erupt
into visible mountains

We see the peaks
but the movement
is the story


Found in Adam Gopnik's "Slaughterhouse: The idealistic origins of total war", his review of David A. Bell's "The First Total War: Napoleon's Europe and the Birth of Warfare As We Know It" in the 12 February issue of the New Yorker.