These are poems of necessity
Recording what matters
Saying what needs to be said
Revealing unappreciated complications
And the unexamined chaos of the heart
Providing comfort, not explanation
Gathering words behind a levee
To contain love and loss and laughter
Friday, December 9, 2011
You Dirty Rat
No longer can Cagney
Fling out
"You dirty rat"
Neuroscientists have now discovered
Empathetic rats will set free
An imprisoned fellow rat
For no reason
Other than compassion
Something many of our species
Cannot yet do
Instead, it is prison for ounces of marijuana
A Berlin style wall for our Mexican border
And rats accusing each other
"You dirty human being"
[Based on a Houston Chronicle article, 9 Dec 2011, "Altruistic behavior stuns scientists". Neurobiologists increasingly believe animals can detect emotions. I hope they find something we can inject into certain political leaders before they kill us all.]
Fling out
"You dirty rat"
Neuroscientists have now discovered
Empathetic rats will set free
An imprisoned fellow rat
For no reason
Other than compassion
Something many of our species
Cannot yet do
Instead, it is prison for ounces of marijuana
A Berlin style wall for our Mexican border
And rats accusing each other
"You dirty human being"
[Based on a Houston Chronicle article, 9 Dec 2011, "Altruistic behavior stuns scientists". Neurobiologists increasingly believe animals can detect emotions. I hope they find something we can inject into certain political leaders before they kill us all.]
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