How Many Poem by Maple Trail

I asked the teacher
“Have more been killed
than have killed? ”

“We should include only humans”
wryly suggested a huntsman

Then if we consider only
the 7 billion or so alive today
we might say most have not killed

Surely the one who aimed the rifle
and squeezed the trigger killed
And the one who flew to Japan
and released the bomb killed

Might those who loaded the plane
and fueled it be counted?

And what of those who tested the bomb
to insure its effectiveness
and those who built it
and poured the death into it?

Those who mined and purified
the deadly elements
Those who theorized the underpinnings
or created the wealth to make it possible?

The student next to me said
“We should stop counting now -
I don’t want to be late for Economics”

Outside
girls were laughing
and the soccer ball said “thwump”