Ed III

Hey, remember the Tragic Saga of Ed?  No?  What kind of Inchoatia reader ARE you?  It's a pair of poems I wrote in high school.  Lately, I find myself thinking about them a lot.  They were totally frivolous, off-the-top-of-my-head things, and no moral philosophy or message should be ascribed to them, BUT, for some reason, I can't help wanting to at least acknowledge how grim they would be if you made the mistake of taking them even a tiny bit seriously.  So now: a twenty-years-later third part to the series!  Thrilling!

The Moral Reckoning of Ed

Ed was truly dead it's true,

And all the other people too.

He had committed genocide,

Which is quite bad, before he died.

There were no humans left, you see,

Not Sarah Joe or Bob or me.

Had young Ed felt deep remorse

As he pursued his reckless course?

Or is it, rather, fair to say

His acts were empty on that day?

That signifiers lost their sting,

And it meant naught, that killing thing?

Is Ed, d'ya reckon, down in hell?

And all his victims too, as well?
They drove him to his fateful act,

Should not they too with guilt be wracked?

These answers, truly, I don't know,

And if I did, I'd tell you so.

One thing only I'll assert:
In all the murder, all the hurt,

The human race had run its course.

Its ending was, I think, perforce,

Destined to come, a microcosm,

Of who we are, though not too awesome.