Making Do

A remedy is offered in an alley.
Money moves
from sufferer to healer.
quickly.  What has been purchased
proves to be weaker than was desired,
but will do.  The sufferer mutters,
but settles for it.

A farmer settles on a smaller price
for a larger crop, smoldering
with thoughts of winter ahead.

Linchpins
are carved from hard wood
in places where there are no forges.

Where there is only soft copper
and little wood,
those who need linchpins
traditionally long for iron,
will scrounge and scheme
for something to trade for it,

and plan for war.

While we’re all making do,
civilization develops,
rises, and falls in upon itself.

Without each other to shore up
our resentments, to bear
our brunt,

we’re nothing.