Think: the ghost in Amadeus,
Salieri trying to haunt Mozart
With the image of the father
Demanding excellence.
Some believe it is good
To require
To judge
To reprimand
To beat
And what did you get, at the end?
Resentment.
So, you ask, is Laissez Faire
Any better?
Is the writer without angst
Not a writer?
Is the army without
the dehumanizing
good at winning wars?
And yet
Whose war was it
When the voice said
In a celebratory tone
To go ahead
With the rope
The wobbly chair
Whose war was to be won?
Yours, an odd war
In which the other,
The different,
Isn’t deserving of a life.
