Round & Round

by Carl S.

I thought some ExChristian.net readers might enjoy my poem, Round and Round, which appeared in the July/August issue of American Atheist magazine.

Round & Round

There are many kinds of dances
In the land of Limerick Zoo
And the town of Verse-Take-A-Pick,
Where the poems and the jokes
Doe-see-doe with the folks;
It’s the same old/new ballyhoo.

For the jokes and the wordplays are so much alike
In the ways they elicit emotion,
By twisting, accenting, with insightful might,
Elicit prejudice, delight, and devotion.

Suppose that the prose, so often repeated, inflected,
Must give credence to faith without reason,
The most ridiculous things are accepted,
Are jokes taken serious by folk,
The beyond rhyme or reason,
To the point where rejection is treason.

And they go round and round in perennial repeating tradition,
Seeking comfort in pain, which they spurn,
By key words and phrases that release inhibition,
Despite contradiction, determined and firm in conviction,
Unwilling to otherwise learn.

Now, as ever, the free mind must warn and observe
How conditions become in the Zoo,
That abstractions become gods to serve.

Can’t you feel and hear the swell
Of the congested carousel,
Popular, run by the always few?

-A footnote: A man comes home early from work to find his wife in bed with another man, whereupon he opens his dresser drawer, takes out a loaded pistol, and points it at his temple. His wife and her lover laugh at him. He shouts at them, “You think this is funny? Well, you’re next!” Similarly, God, in order to avenge the wrongs done him, kills himself! And you’re next.

Dedicated to all those who got off the merry-go-round.

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