The sole right thing to say
is, of course, “kill them all
and be done with it.”

But who should we kill? Shall it
be foreigners here by
someone’s grace? Or shall it be

your neighbor
who watches you from under
lidded eyes —

and you are doing the same?
You could kill the local dogs and cats
or at least send them

scurrying for a safe home elsewhere;
I bet you would barely
feel a pang.

Kill plants, kill hedges,
the very lawns you stare at
every morning. In fact

why not kill all grasses?
Seagrass, tough knotweed,
the berries that come up in their path.

Work your way down
the Eastern Seaboard
doing it

until you get
to Washington — and fall
on your knees there — oh my,

so many people or near-people
to righteously kill! You’d forget the others —
just as you already have; right now,

in fact. You would stop in mid –
revery and fall back to sleep.
There are so many who deserve it

there and you are finally getting it:
you’re too small to do anything
but imagine it. Instead

you wave to the neighbor
and smile at his overweight dog.
Why bother killing him? He

will be dead soon,
after all,
as you will be.

Wake up unsettled
after this one;
try to shake it off

but it won’t go completely away.
It sticks here in your newspaper
and television biting at you

like you are certain
a screwworm will do
and is doing in fact right now.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
onward,
T