the acquisitive urge, part mmxxv

it would be charming if he were a little boy playing the world-domination game known as Risk and popular in my own childhood

where patience gains you armies and positioning gives you a defensible base of operations and dice-throws are used to conduct warfare

but history records the great injustices and sufferings that accompany empire-building

and reichs and manifest destinies and conquer-we-must correlate with genocide

but this not-a-little-boy anymore says “even bad publicity can be good”

and he casts his acquisitive eye on twenty-first-century turf

because his idea of positive thinking is “we wants it”

and his armies and armaments are a little boy’s toys