THE
RATIONALIZATIONS
OF DAVID THE DAD
Mumbling like some drunk
Chapter 19
And then he looks right at me,
2And I can see that all of everything is in his eyes,
3Including the principle of union,
4And the bone-deep scars of the slaves,
5And the acrid embers of Atlanta,
6And the amputation tent at Antietam,
7And the rape and ruin of a million homes,
8And children dying of hunger and typhoid and loneliness,
9And all of it could be avoided if he would put aside the principle,
10And admit that no idea can ever be worth all this,
11Because no idea can justify an inquisition,
12Or the burning of a heretic,
13Or the madness of religious guilt and the devouring fear of sin,
14hAnd all the rest of what flows from the wounds of a single man nailed to a cross in the desert.
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Chapter 19 / 29