Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Poem: Totally Selfish

No one is going to publish this, so I'll just publish it here.  I'm sick of playing Cassandra, but I'm also sick of humanity for being the kind of Beast that generates Cassandras.

Live Well & Appreciate What You Have,

Owl

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Totally Selfish

 

as the people split

and split again

to grasp a sinking fate,

it came to be known

that some had circuits instead of morals,

while others fought like pigs,

starved for last kernels of corn.

how different the world had been,

before all this,

when there were real lions,

not just mock presidents.

a time when the sky

exploded with flocks, not bombs.

a time when forests weren’t factories.

when buffalo roamed entire "States."

and yet

and yet

and yet

it is impossible, now,

to dream a world so beautiful.

a world so abundant and various,

verdant and majestic.

not even the osedax deep in the oceans,

or nomadic ants, trickling in remote wastes,

can avoid the Great Human

Mouth.


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The original title of this was "Tragicommon."  It came from Garret Hardin's theory, the tragedy of the commons.  However, I want to point out that Hardin's theory, itself, is extremely simplistic.  It reduces humans to nothing but mathematical calculators , who, each and every one, fixate on seizing as much money as possible.  It is a paranoid theory, advanced by a man who is, when you look at his bio, extremely racist.  When I learned this, I changed the title.    

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