The Quality of Mercy Strained

Turning Not Toward the Horror Because It Is There

"Each human capable of Reason is leashed to Responsibility;
it owns him."
-- Rational Ethics 101

*

Leave a door open
not long
and a neighbor's
domesticated
unleashed cat
if not dead in a ditch
on being hit by a speeding automobile
will enter
after littering kittens
once more
in the wild
which killed will be
by predators
or parasites
or speeding automobiles
or of starvation
or the cold
die --
though you will not be saying
"Excuse me
my being
an addict
hard
to conscious
feeling
toys
instead of a
Rationally Ethical human
not breeding
not owning
ceaseless
Pain
untold
unimaginable."

*

a dedication of Respect
for
the Pain of a pet --
both
not necessary

a revolving helios free verse menippean satire on
the ideology of breeding and owning
Selfishness

march, 2023 -- yet on being caught
countless male cats feral
castrated
and
dumped
once more
in the wild