WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED

Other than to hug our children
And praise their kindnesses
As means of warding off the
Evil spirits of limitless need,
Greed, malignant narcissism?

I apologize for the unpoetic
Language and prosaic rhythms,
But people are dying from
The lack of compassion, not
The beauty of what can be

Said in a poem as we might
Think of one. Think of one.
Take a sad situation and
Make a better one—a better
Situation, a better poem

Than this one, a better world
Or world within. Now think:
Who would want an evil child?
Who would look at that sick
Face and want to re-create it?

What we have learned is not
That evil people exist but
That there are people who
Like them, who are like them,
Or who want to be like them.

Such people are damaged
By abuse, neglect, stupidity,
The countless natural or
Unnatural cruelties that the
Raw world inflicts daily.

To counter or work around
That damage, humans make
Civilization, a child that the evil
Consider an obstacle to be over-
Come. Embrace civilization.