Here’s a little ode to our ancestors that’s been floating around Carter’s house for a few years and is sometimes used before meals:

This meal is a gladiator’s victory

Won over nature, that murderous foe,

In this old planetary coliseum

Cheerfully callous to creatures below.


We owe present lives to ancient geniuses,

Who leashed her by brain and subjugate brawn.

Stagnant inheritance of unearned leisure 

Ought never obscure those battle lines drawn.


Against pathogens, Prometheus.

Against famine, farming.

Against effort, electricity.

Against miles, motors.

Against rotting, refrigerant.

Against fiefdom, freedom

To live, produce, and trade absent force

Bounties rich envied by yesterday’s lord.