A poem of Western suicide

A reader writes: “Your Dante reference has inspired a morbid poem as I try to grasp the western liberal mindset.” The poem says something true about what we’re living through, and it gets to me. So here it is:

Chin up! For we must carry on, lest
The rats may nibble at our toes. It’s best
Not to see them, and not to know our fears,
If we were to look, not having looked in years.
They used to feed individually, we did ignore.
They now feed collectively. No more
Can a man see his feet being eaten but he knows,
Who needs feet if you have no toes?
And who needs legs with no feet upon which to stand?
No need to look down, I am still a man!
Where would I go without any legs? I should not deny
A meal to hungry rats! Such generosity, we reply,
Is the true nature of a man, a benevolent gent,
Of which I am one. They must recognize that bent,
In their consumption! And if it should be
That I am no more, they shall see,
When there is no flesh to feast upon, it was I
Whom they needed to sustain their lives. Humanity, why
Our noble lives, ideal, where dreams untethered ran?
Look away! No need to look down. Am I still a man?

Posted by Lawrence Auster at July 13, 2005 01:42 AM | Send