Vile

Vile things are in every culture.
Vile things are in every time.
Today, it is mutilation of children.
Yesterday, it was chattel slavery.
Tomorrow, who knows?

The obdurate child gets taken from his home.
Stiff necked, and unapologetic, he'd rather
Be placed in foster care, to avoid his parents.
They don't want him to be permanently changed.

The men and women, walking in their rows
Of chains, shackled together, blood dripping down their backs,
A whip cracking, and a husband and wife torn apart
With the screaming infant between their arms.

What gross thing will tomorrow bring?
What invasive disease of the mind will it infect us with?
What horrible thing, will normal and sane individuals
Believe is right? The fact of the first thirty years of my life
Was that we had finally gotten it right,
And didn't have any of this. What a shame things went so awry.