{"id":5184,"date":"2020-04-27T22:05:56","date_gmt":"2020-04-27T22:05:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/floridareview.cah.ucf.edu\/?post_type=article&amp;p=5184"},"modified":"2020-04-27T22:05:56","modified_gmt":"2020-04-27T22:05:56","slug":"poems-of-cruelty-and-compassion","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/floridareview\/article\/poems-of-cruelty-and-compassion\/","title":{"rendered":"Poems of Cruelty and Compassion"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Poem with Too Much Rope in It\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: right\"><em>After the opening of The National Memorial for Peace and Justice<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m thinking of humans who cut the testicles off other humans, who string up<\/p>\n<p>their fellow humans and laugh. Of people who set other people alight for the crime of<\/p>\n<p><em>uppity<\/em>, for the crime of <em>gay<\/em>, for the crime of, <em>I refuse<\/em>. I\u2019m worrying about<\/p>\n<p>my fellow humans, who can hang a pregnant woman upside down, disembowel her,<\/p>\n<p>leave the fetus dangling\u2014<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m thinking of the many loving humans I know. Sheltering humans. I\u2019m worrying<\/p>\n<p>about how many people after the war still thought Hitler\u2019s big mistake was<\/p>\n<p>not killing all the Jews. Wondering, too, about those who hid entire families in<\/p>\n<p>a few small rooms, risking the murder of their own. How do we reconcile this\u2014<\/p>\n<p>the fervidly brave, the fervidly cruel. Happy informers. The disbelieving informed. <em>Them<\/em><\/p>\n<p>and <em>Us<\/em>. <em>Who did this to you?<\/em> I want to ask victim and perpetrator\u2014<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I want it to be someone\u2019s fault: twisted leaders, bad parents, beatings.<\/p>\n<p>Or maybe it\u2019s a Darwinian experiment. Something coiled in our genes. Here are<\/p>\n<p>the conditions: let\u2019s see who lives, let\u2019s see who fouls their soul. Either way,<\/p>\n<p>I walk down the street with affable\u00a0people who would do these things\u2014dangle<\/p>\n<p>suffocating humans from branches, drag them behind jouncing pickup trucks and laugh,<\/p>\n<p>roast alive the very humans\u00a0who maybe\u2014in another life\u2014they dearly love.<\/p>\n<p>Is there a life in which I\u2019m laughing along with them?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Knees<\/h3>\n<p>Tomorrow, my father gets his foot<\/p>\n<p>cut off\u2014too much pain for too long\u2014<\/p>\n<p>time for another divorce.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>For years, he declared<\/p>\n<p>he was too old for this.<\/p>\n<p>Maybe he was too young.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>What a shiver\u2014sickness,<\/p>\n<p>wheelchairs, walkers,<\/p>\n<p>canes. There\u2019s been talk<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>of complications,<\/p>\n<p>of a cut above the knee\u2014<\/p>\n<p>like the hem on a sexy skirt.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>But he will insist, he says,<\/p>\n<p>on below the knee. March\u2014<\/p>\n<p>a bit of snow clings<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>to the ground, but in his garden<\/p>\n<p>he\u2019s planted spinach already.<\/p>\n<p>By my front steps this morning,<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>the hyacinths just beginning<\/p>\n<p>to bulge out of the ground<\/p>\n<p>remind me of knees\u2014<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>how green and incipient<\/p>\n<p>we can always be.<\/p>\n<p>Below the knee\u2014<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>all the things<\/p>\n<p>he has done,<\/p>\n<p>has not done,<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>could do,<\/p>\n<p>can still do,<\/p>\n<p>on his knees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m thinking of humans who &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":5187,"template":"","categories":[9,49,119],"tags":[854,1462,6,797,1463,1126,1464,1465,1466,1467,1468,1469],"class_list":["post-5184","article","type-article","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aquifer","category-literary-features","category-poetry","tag-aging","tag-amputation","tag-aquifer-the-florida-review-online","tag-gardening","tag-hate-crimes","tag-holocaust","tag-illness-and-disability","tag-jennifer-stewart-miller","tag-knees","tag-national-memorial-for-peace-and-justice","tag-poem-with-too-much-rope-in-it","tag-poems-of-cruelty-and-compassion"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - 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