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Stop!
I have no shape, no form
Do you really wish this
Sightless eyes will be
Sighted eyes will be a weakness,
There will be ears, but sighted eyes will be my
If sound is mine, I will become aware
I am safe within my void.
I beg of you, do not harm me
Like the reptiles of yore, your time
Before you misuse your wonderful love,
think of me.
I am happy, being nothing, non-existent
within my void.
of any manner.
But, if you abuse your passion, I will become
a hideous malformation.
for me?
My wanting of symmetry may cause me
life long pain-unwittingly
the fool
of the cruel.
my lot,
living in darkness, stumbling over what I cannot
even imagine.
I will be damned
to guessing.
for they will enable
me to
see the starving, suffering and sickness saturating
the tenants of
your sphere.
sole path
to understanding.
My ears will be tainted by silence forced upon them
without reason.
of words which wound.
The cadence of unjust condemnation
will sadden me.
I will hear
the discord.
Do not make me.
To make me is to
be selfish.
My appearance is not a gift, it is nothing more
than a trophy.
into reality.
I do not want what you have
to offer.
Save me from the horrific possibilities
of your order.
should desist.
Bring no more of us
into your sojourn.
Let us be nothing.
Fade away
with dignity.
It may seem strange that a new grandfather would write a poem like “To the Six Billion”.
Although this piece was written before the birth of my granddaughter Katie, who was born on December 28, 2007, I still feel as though we human beings have had our chance with Mother Earth and have failed miserably.
We’ve failed in not only how we’ve mistreated the earth, taking from it as if its resources were endless and giving back landfills, but we’ve also failed in how we treat each other, supposedly the most advanced species on earth.
I’m, therefore, faced with a paradox. I willingly set forth to procreate and, consequently, willingly accepted the birth of my three daughters. I love all three of them unconditionally and with a love only a parent can possess towards his or her offspring.
I don’t control nor presume to control the actions of my children. In fact, although I may disagree with their actions, once they’ve made up their minds, I support them.
This includes my oldest daughter's decision to give birth to my granddaughter on the 28th of December, 2007. Logistical reality has kept me from meeting Katie. I plan on doing that in about three months.
I’m proud that my daughter and son-in-law have accepted the challenge of parenthood and I wish them well.
However, I believe in what I say in “To the Six Billion”. At some point, through attrition, if we love this earth and we know we’ll love children that we bring into the world, we would not bring them into the world, at least not into this world.
We would not expose those whom we love to religious bias and hatred, to international bias and hatred, to racial or ethnic bias and hatred. We would not help to create their lungs which, once born, will fill with the residuals of greed in the form of petrochemical based production.
I would not wish those that I love to have to live in a world in which there is no room for them. Not only will continuing to increase the population result in more competition for the world’s resources, but it will have the pragmatic effect of displacing open space. A two liter container holds two liters and, no matter how hard one tries, one can not stuff three liters into the container. The earth is just plain running out of room.
The birth of my granddaughter forces me to become hopeful that her generation won’t come face to face with the horrible reality created by a continuous growth of the world’s population.
That birth also causes me to worry that her life will be more complicated and more difficult because we human beings feel it is our obligation to perpetuate the species.
As you can plainly see, “To the Six Billion” is a view from the yet un-conceived human being.
I must make it clear that I am not proposing mass suicide or any such violent act. “To the Six Billion” merely asks that we bring no more human beings into the world. It’s best for us and it’s definitely best for them.
COPYRIGHT 2001 by Michael Bonanno
Reproduction of “The
LOC Reg. #TXu 988-155
Corporacracy - Part Two”
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