i. The anthropologist
Their land was barren of all habitation,
their tribal structure hard to understand
and useless to the business of a nation.
He gasped and saw a dead thing in his hand.
He asked the natives what they called each creature.
Their gods refused to answer to a name,
but linguists said the language had a feature—
the words for different sex acts were the same.
The missionaries soon were past all caring
and fell to worship of a giant stone.
What chiefs remained were naked and despairing.
What did they want? Their wishes were unknown.
It could be said that they excelled in swearing
and like us wanted to be left alone.

ii. The malady
There was an emptiness of sea and sky,
a barren outlook from deserted peaks.
Call out a name, and there was no reply.
The letters had been postage-due for weeks.
Each family saw a cast of strangers there,
each ...

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